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what is oriental despotism: Oriental Despotism Karl August Wittfogel, 1963 |
what is oriental despotism: Orientalism and Islam Michael Curtis, 2009-06-08 Through an historical analysis of the theme of Oriental despotism, Michael Curtis reveals the complex positive and negative interaction between Europe and the Orient. The book also criticizes the misconception that the Orient was the constant victim of Western imperialism and the view that Westerners cannot comment objectively on Eastern and Muslim societies. The book views the European concept of Oriental despotism as based not on arbitrary prejudicial observation, but rather on perceptions of real processes and behavior in Eastern systems of government. Curtis considers how the concept developed and was expressed in the context of Western political thought and intellectual history, and of the changing realities in the Middle East and India. The book includes discussion of the observations of Western travelers in Muslim countries and analysis of the reflections of seven major thinkers: Montesquieu, Edmund Burke, Tocqueville, James and John Stuart Mill, Karl Marx, and Max Weber. |
what is oriental despotism: Orientalism Edward W. Said, 1995 Now reissued with a substantial new afterword, this highly acclaimed overview of Western attitudes towards the East has become one of the canonical texts of cultural studies. Very excitingâ¦his case is not merely persuasive, but conclusive. John Leonard in The New York Times His most important book, Orientalism established a new benchmark for discussion of the West's skewed view of the Arab and Islamic world.Simon Louvish in the New Statesman & Society âEdward Said speaks for interdisciplinarity as well as for monumental erudition¦The breadth of reading [is] astonishing. Fred Inglis in The Times Higher Education Supplement A stimulating, elegant yet pugnacious essay.Observer Exciting¦for anyone interested in the history and power of ideas.J.H. Plumb in The New York Times Book Review Beautifully patterned and passionately argued. Nicholas Richardson in the New Statesman & Society |
what is oriental despotism: China's Political Economy in Modern Times Kent G Deng, 2011-10-04 This book makes an important contribution to the study of changes in China’s institutions and their impact on the national economy as well as ordinary people’s daily material life from 1800 to 2000. Kent Deng reveals China’s mega-cycle of prosperity-poverty-prosperity without the usual attribution to the 1840 Opium War, or the alleged population pressure, class struggle and oriental despotism. The book challenges the conventional view on ‘rebellions’, ‘revolutions’ and their alleged motivations and outcomes. Its findings separate commonly circulated myth with reality based on solid evidence and careful evaluation. The benchmark used by the author is people’s entitlement and mundane day-to-day material well being, instead of the stereotype of aggregates of industrial hardware and national GDP. China’s Political economy in Modern Times proves that state-building was the prime mover in China’s modern history. Contrary to the popular belief in mass movement, Deng shows convincingly that changes were in most cases imposed by a minority with external help. Therefore, the quality of the state was unpredictable, seen from the anti-state that cost lives and economic growth. This book will be of interest to students and scholars of Chinese Politics, Chinese Economics, Chinese History, and Political Economy. |
what is oriental despotism: The Birth of the Despot Lucette Valensi, 2018-05-31 In her graceful account of the transformation of European attitudes toward the Ottoman empire during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Lucette Valensi follows the genealogy of the concept of Oriental despotism. The Birth of the Despot examines a crucial moment in the long and ambiguous encounter between the Christian and Islamic worlds: the period after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks, when Venice's pursuit of its commercial and maritime interests brought two powerful protagonists—Venice and the Sublime Porte—face-to-face. Vivaldi's oratorio Juditha Triumphans, in which Judith liberates her besieged town by killing the Turk Holofernes, serves as the organizing metaphor in Valensi's study of how Venice's perceptions of its rival changed. Valensi shows how Venice's initial admiration for the sultan and his orderly empire metamorphosed into revulsion at a monstrous tyrant. |
what is oriental despotism: The Sultan's Court Alain Grosrichard, 1998 An engaging critique of Western misconceptions about the mysterious East. Alain Grosrichard's fascinating survey focuses particularly on portrayals of the Ottoman Empire by Western intellectuals and the supposedly enigmatic structure of the despot's court--the seraglio--with its viziers, janissaries, mutes, dwarfs, eunuchs, and countless wives. |
what is oriental despotism: The Water Kingdom Philip Ball, 2017-05-05 From the Yangtze to the Yellow River, China is traversed by great waterways, which have defined its politics and ways of life for centuries. Water has been so integral to China’s culture, economy, and growth and development that it provides a window on the whole sweep of Chinese history. In The Water Kingdom, renowned writer Philip Ball opens that window to offer an epic and powerful new way of thinking about Chinese civilization. Water, Ball shows, is a key that unlocks much of Chinese culture. In The Water Kingdom, he takes us on a grand journey through China’s past and present, showing how the complexity and energy of the country and its history repeatedly come back to the challenges, opportunities, and inspiration provided by the waterways. Drawing on stories from travelers and explorers, poets and painters, bureaucrats and activists, all of whom have been influenced by an environment shaped and permeated by water, Ball explores how the ubiquitous relationship of the Chinese people to water has made it an enduring metaphor for philosophical thought and artistic expression. From the Han emperors to Mao, the ability to manage the waters ? to provide irrigation and defend against floods ? was a barometer of political legitimacy, often resulting in engineering works on a gigantic scale. It is a struggle that continues today, as the strain of economic growth on water resources may be the greatest threat to China’s future. The Water Kingdom offers an unusual and fascinating history, uncovering just how much of China’s art, politics, and outlook have been defined by the links between humanity and nature. |
what is oriental despotism: After Oriental Despotism Alessandro Stanziani, 2014-07-31 The concepts of economic backwardness, Asiatic despotism and orientalism have strongly influenced perceptions of modernization, democracy and economic growth over the last three centuries. This book provides an original view of Russian and Asian history that views both in a global perspective. Via this analysis, Alessandro Stanziani opens new dimensions in the study of state formation, the global slave trade, warfare and European and Asian growth. After Oriental Despotism questions conventional oppositions between Europe and Asia. By revisiting the history of Eurasia in this context, the book offers a serious challenge to existing ideas about the aims and goals of economic growth. |
what is oriental despotism: Useful Enemies Noel Malcolm, 2019-05-02 From the fall of Constantinople in 1453 until the eighteenth century, many Western European writers viewed the Ottoman Empire with almost obsessive interest. Typically they reacted to it with fear and distrust; and such feelings were reinforced by the deep hostility of Western Christendom towards Islam. Yet there was also much curiosity about the social and political system on which the huge power of the sultans was based. In the sixteenth century, especially, when Ottoman territorial expansion was rapid and Ottoman institutions seemed particularly robust, there was even open admiration. In this path-breaking book Noel Malcolm ranges through these vital centuries of East-West interaction, studying all the ways in which thinkers in the West interpreted the Ottoman Empire as a political phenomenon - and Islam as a political religion. Useful Enemies shows how the concept of 'oriental despotism' began as an attempt to turn the tables on a very positive analysis of Ottoman state power, and how, as it developed, it interacted with Western debates about monarchy and government. Noel Malcolm also shows how a negative portrayal of Islam as a religion devised for political purposes was assimilated by radical writers, who extended the criticism to all religions, including Christianity itself. Examining the works of many famous thinkers (including Machiavelli, Bodin, and Montesquieu) and many less well-known ones, Useful Enemies illuminates the long-term development of Western ideas about the Ottomans, and about Islam. Noel Malcolm shows how these ideas became intertwined with internal Western debates about power, religion, society, and war. Discussions of Islam and the Ottoman Empire were thus bound up with mainstream thinking in the West on a wide range of important topics. These Eastern enemies were not just there to be denounced. They were there to be made use of, in arguments which contributed significantly to the development of Western political thought. |
what is oriental despotism: The Origins of Political Order Francis Fukuyama, 2011-05-12 Nations are not trapped by their pasts, but events that happened hundreds or even thousands of years ago continue to exert huge influence on present-day politics. If we are to understand the politics that we now take for granted, we need to understand its origins. Francis Fukuyama examines the paths that different societies have taken to reach their current forms of political order. This book starts with the very beginning of mankind and comes right up to the eve of the French and American revolutions, spanning such diverse disciplines as economics, anthropology and geography. The Origins of Political Order is a magisterial study on the emergence of mankind as a political animal, by one of the most eminent political thinkers writing today. |
what is oriental despotism: China and Orientalism Daniel Vukovich, 2013-06-17 This book argues that there is a new, Sinological form of orientalism at work in the world. It has shifted from a logic of ‘essential difference’ to one of ‘sameness’ or general equivalence. China is now in a halting but inevitable process of becoming-the-same as the USA and the West. Orientalism is now closer to the cultural logic of capitalism, even as it shows the afterlives of colonial discourse. This shift reflects our era of increasing globalization; the migration of orientalism to area studies and the pax Americana; the liberal triumph at the end of history and the demonization of Maoism; an ever closer Sino-West relationship; and the overlapping of anti-communist and colonial discourses. To make the case for this re-constitution of orientalism, this work offers an inter-disciplinary analysis of the China field broadly defined. Vukovich takes on specialist work on the politics, governance, and history of the Mao and reform eras, from the Great Leap Forward to Tiananmen, 1989; the Western study of Chinese film; recent work in critical theory which turns on ‘the China-reference; and other global texts about or from China. Through extensive analysis, the production of Sinological knowledge is shown to be of a piece with Western global intellectual political culture. This work will be of great interest to scholars of Asian, postcolonial and cultural studies. |
what is oriental despotism: Montesquieu and the Despotic Ideas of Europe Vickie B. Sullivan, 2017-09-05 Montesquieu is famous as a tireless critic of despotism, which he associates overtly with Asia and the Middle East and not with the apparently more moderate Western models of governance found throughout Europe. However, Vickie B. Sullivan argues that a creaful reading of Montesquieu's enormously influential The Spirit of the Law reveals the surprising result that he recognizes that Europe itself is susceptible to despotic practices - and that the threat emanates not from the East but rather from certain despotic ideas that inform Western institutions and practices. Sullivan guides readers through Montesquieu's sometimes veiled yet sharply critical accounts of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Aristotle, and Plato, as well as various Christian thinkers have brough forth despotic ideas in the form, for example, of brutal Machiavellianism, of Hobbes's justifications for the rule of one, of Plato's reasoning that denied slaves the right of natural defense, and of the Christian teachings that equated heresy with treason. Such ideas, Montesquieu shows, inform such revered European institutions as the French monarchy and the Roman Catholic Church. In this new reading of Montesquieu's masterwork, Sullivan corrects the misconception that it offers simple, objective observations, showing it to be instead a powerful critique of European politics that would become remarkably and regrettably prescient after Montesquieu's death, when despotism repeatedly emerged in Europe with virulent intensity. -- from dust jacket. |
what is oriental despotism: History of Chinese society Liao : (907 - 1125) , 1970 |
what is oriental despotism: The Eastern Origins of Western Civilisation John M. Hobson, 2004-06-03 Publisher Description |
what is oriental despotism: Arab Marxism and National Liberation Mahdi Amel, 2020-12-15 Mahdi Amel (1936–87) was a prominent Arab Marxist thinker and Lebanese Communist Party member. This collection brings for the first time to an English audience lengthy excerpts from six major works by Mahdi Amel. These include the two founding texts on colonialism and underdevelopment in which Amel began to grapple with the question of dependency, his treatise on sectarianism and the state, his critique of Edward Said’s analysis of Marx, his exposure of emerging Islamised bourgeois trends of thought as part of a broader critique of everyday thought, and his reflection on cultural heritage as perceived by Arab bourgeoisie. Amel’s writings serve as a reminder of the need to renew Marxist thought based on the concrete and particular social realities like colonialism. |
what is oriental despotism: Negara Clifford Geertz, 2021-05-11 Combining great learning, interpretative originality, analytical sensitivity, and a charismatic prose style, Clifford Geertz has produced a lasting body of work with influence throughout the humanities and social sciences, and remains the foremost anthropologist in America. His 1980 book Negara analyzed the social organization of Bali before it was colonized by the Dutch in 1906. Here Geertz applied his widely influential method of cultural interpretation to the myths, ceremonies, rituals, and symbols of a precolonial state. He found that the nineteenth-century Balinese state defied easy conceptualization by the familiar models of political theory and the standard Western approaches to understanding politics. Negara means country or seat of political authority in Indonesian. In Bali Geertz found negara to be a theatre state, governed by rituals and symbols rather than by force. The Balinese state did not specialize in tyranny, conquest, or effective administration. Instead, it emphasized spectacle. The elaborate ceremonies and productions the state created were not means to political ends: they were the ends themselves, they were what the state was for.... Power served pomp, not pomp power. Geertz argued more forcefully in Negara than in any of his other books for the fundamental importance of the culture of politics to a society. Much of Geertz's previous work--including his world-famous essay on the Balinese cockfight--can be seen as leading up to the full portrait of the poetics of power that Negara so vividly depicts. |
what is oriental despotism: Theory, Policy, Practice Suman Nath, Debraj Bhattacharya, 2021-09-19 This book explores the meanings and perceptions of development and the dialectics of theory, policy and practice. It looks at how theory translates into policy, and the disconnections in its design and implementation in the Indian context. The book focuses on the influence of capitalist globalisation, democratisation, decentralisation and neoliberal economic reforms on the development discourse in India and how these have challenged the traditional role of the ‘state’, the meaning of citizenship, and public participation. Through an analysis of case studies from various parts of the country, it bridges the gap between policy prescriptions and practices and unpacks the institutional, political and policy-led compulsions and incompatibilities which most often remain unreported. It also discusses the intersections between policymaking and the politics of class, caste and gender, and emphasises the role bureaucracy plays in institutional governance. The volume includes articles from professionals ranging from academics, practitioners and activists. It will be of interest to scholars and researchers of public policy, development studies, South Asian politics, and economics as well as policy makers and practitioners in government and civil society. |
what is oriental despotism: Global History with Chinese Characteristics Manuel Perez-Garcia, 2020-11-02 This open access book considers a pivotal era in Chinese history from a global perspective. This book’s insight into Chinese and international history offers timely and challenging perspectives on initiatives like “Chinese characteristics”, “The New Silk Road” and “One Belt, One Road” in broad historical context. Global History with Chinese Characteristics analyses the feeble state capacity of Qing China questioning the so-called “High Qing” (shèng qīng 盛清) era’s economic prosperity as the political system was set into a “power paradox” or “supremacy dilemma”. This is a new thesis introduced by the author demonstrating that interventionist states entail weak governance. Macao and Marseille as a new case study aims to compare Mediterranean and South China markets to provide new insights into both modern eras’ rising trade networks, non-official institutions and interventionist impulses of autocratic states such as China’s Qing and Spain’s Bourbon empires. |
what is oriental despotism: The Jurisprudence of Emergency Nasser Hussain, 2019-08-02 The Jurisprudence of Emergency examines British rule in India from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth century, tracing tensions between the ideology of liberty and government by law used to justify the colonizing power's insistence on a regime of conquest. Nasser Hussain argues that the interaction of these competing ideologies exemplifies a conflict central to all Western legal systems—between the universal, rational operation of law on the one hand and the absolute sovereignty of the state on the other. The author uses an impressive array of historical evidence to demonstrate how questions of law and emergency shaped colonial rule, which in turn affected the development of Western legality. The pathbreaking insights developed in The Jurisprudence of Emergency reevaluate the place of colonialism in modern law by depicting the colonies as influential agents in the interpretation of Western ideas and practices. Hussain's interdisciplinary approach and subtly shaded revelations will be of interest to historians as well as scholars of legal and political theory. |
what is oriental despotism: The Origins of Physiocracy Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, 1976 |
what is oriental despotism: The Asiatic Mode of Production Lawrence Krader, 1975 |
what is oriental despotism: The Nature of Asian Politics Bruce Gilley, 2014-09-15 The Nature of Asian Politics is a broad and thematic treatment of the fundamental factors that characterize politics in the fourteen key countries of Southeast and Northeast Asia. Bruce Gilley begins with an overview of state-society relations, then moves on to the fundamental questions of development and democracy, and finally shifts to an exploration of governance and public policy in the region. This book proposes an Asian governance model that is useful for understanding politics from Japan to Indonesia. By reviving an earlier paradigm known as oriental despotism and applying it to political theories on the Asian region, this book is likely to attract wide debate among students of Asian politics and among Western policy makers seeking to engage the region. |
what is oriental despotism: Oriental Despotism Karl A. Wittfogel, 1973 |
what is oriental despotism: Romantic Gothic Angela Wright, 2015-11-16 Traces the Gothic impulses in proto-Romantic and Romantic British, American and European culture, 1740-1830--Quatrième de couverture. |
what is oriental despotism: Democratizing Oriental Despotism C. Chiou, 1995-08-23 China and Taiwan have similar political cultures. However, Chinese intellectual and political elite have failed to democratize the Middle Kingdom since the 4 May 1919 Movement: whilst their Taiwanese counterpart succeeded in making the island state fairly democratic in just over four decades since the 28 February 1947 Uprising. After an examination of the approaches they applied, the author finds that the former have pursued a culturalist road by trying to change the psycho-cultural make-up of the Chinese people: whilst the latter followed an institutionalist one in which they tried to win elections and to set up political organizations, such as parties. |
what is oriental despotism: Early Orientalism Ivan Kalmar, 2013-06-17 The history of western notions about Islam is of obvious scholarly as well as popular interest today. This book investigates Christian images of the Muslim Middle East, focusing on the period from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, when the nature of divine as well as human power was under particularly intense debate in the West. Ivan Kalmar explores how the controversial notion of submission to ultimate authority has in the western world been discussed with reference to Islam’s alleged recommendation to obey, unquestioningly, a merciless Allah in heaven and a despotic government on earth. He discusses how Abrahamic faiths – Christianity and Judaism as much as Islam – demand devotion to a sublime power, with the faith that this power loves and cares for us, a concept that brings with it the fear that, on the contrary, this power only toys with us for its own enjoyment. For such a power, Kalmar borrows Slavoj Zizek’s term obscene father. He discusses how this describes exactly the western image of the Oriental despot - Allah in heaven, and the various sultans, emirs and ayatollahs on earth – and how these despotic personalities of imagined Muslim society function as a projection, from the West on to the Muslim Orient, of an existential anxiety about sublime power. Making accessible academic debates on the history of Christian perceptions of Islam and on Islam and the West, this book is an important addition to the existing literature in the areas of Islamic studies, religious history and philosophy. |
what is oriental despotism: Western Republicanism and the Oriental Prince Patricia Springborg, 1992 |
what is oriental despotism: Unthinking the Greek Polis Kostas Vlassopoulos, 2011-08-11 This 2007 study explores how modern scholars came to write Greek history from a Eurocentric perspective and challenges orthodox readings of Greek history as part of the history of the West. Since the Greeks lacked a national state or a unified society, economy or culture, the polis has helped to create a homogenising national narrative. This book re-examines old polarities such as those between the Greek poleis and Eastern monarchies, or between the ancient consumer and the modern producer city, in order to show the fallacies of standard approaches. It argues for the relevance of Aristotle's concept of the polis, which is interpreted in an intriguing manner. Finally, it proposes an alternative way of looking at Greek history as part of a Mediterranean world-system. This interdisciplinary study engages with debates on globalisation, nationalism, Orientalism and history writing, while also debating developments in classical studies. |
what is oriental despotism: The Portuguese Empire in Asia, 1500-1700 Sanjay Subrahmanyam, 2012-04-30 Featuring updates and revisions that reflect recent historiography, this new edition of The Portuguese Empire in Asia 1500-1700 presents a comprehensive overview of Portuguese imperial history that considers Asian and European perspectives. Features an argument-driven history with a clear chronological structure Considers the latest developments in English, French, and Portuguese historiography Offers a balanced view in a divisive area of historical study Includes updated Glossary and Guide to Further Reading |
what is oriental despotism: Hun Sen's Cambodia Sebastian Strangio, 2014-01-01 A fascinating analysis of the recent history of the beautiful but troubled Southeast Asian nation of Cambodia To many in the West, the name Cambodia still conjures up indelible images of destruction and death, the legacy of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime and the terror it inflicted in its attempt to create a communist utopia in the 1970s. Sebastian Strangio, a journalist based in the capital city of Phnom Penh, now offers an eye-opening appraisal of modern-day Cambodia in the years following its emergence from bitter conflict and bloody upheaval. In the early 1990s, Cambodia became the focus of the UN's first great post-Cold War nation-building project, with billions in international aid rolling in to support the fledgling democracy. But since the UN-supervised elections in 1993, the nation has slipped steadily backward into neo-authoritarian rule under Prime Minister Hun Sen. Behind a mirage of democracy, ordinary people have few rights and corruption infuses virtually every facet of everyday life. In this lively and compelling study, the first of its kind, Strangio explores the present state of Cambodian society under Hun Sen's leadership, painting a vivid portrait of a nation struggling to reconcile the promise of peace and democracy with a violent and tumultuous past. |
what is oriental despotism: Return to Ruin Zainab Saleh, 2020-10-06 This volume of exiles’ accounts “[uses] the stories as springboards to discussing Iraqi history, politicization, and diasporic experiences in depth” (International Journal of Middle East Studies). With the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Iraqis abroad, hoping to return one day to a better Iraq, became uncertain exiles. Return to Ruin tells the human story of this exile in the context of decades of U.S. imperial interests in Iraq—from the U.S. backing of the 1963 Ba’th coup and support of Saddam Hussein’s regime in the 1980s, to the 1991 Gulf War and 2003 invasion and occupation. Zainab Saleh shares the experiences of Iraqis she met over fourteen years of fieldwork in Iraqi London—offering stories from an aging communist nostalgic for the streets she marched since childhood, a devout Shi’i dreaming of holy cities and family graves, and newly uprooted immigrants with fresh memories of loss, as well as her own. Focusing on debates among Iraqi exiles about what it means to be an Iraqi after years of displacement, Saleh weaves a narrative that draws attention to a once-dominant, vibrant Iraqi cultural landscape and social and political shifts among the diaspora after decades of authoritarianism, war, and occupation in Iraq. Through it all, this book illuminates how Iraqis continue to fashion a sense of belonging and imagine a future, built on the shards of these shattered memories. |
what is oriental despotism: The Spirit of Despotism Vicesimus Knox, 1795 |
what is oriental despotism: Savages, Romans, and Despots Robert Launay, 2018-10-12 From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, Europeans struggled to understand their identity in the same way we do as individuals: by comparing themselves to others. In Savages, Romans, and Despots, Robert Launay takes us on a fascinating tour of early modern and modern history in an attempt to untangle how various depictions of “foreign” cultures and civilizations saturated debates about religion, morality, politics, and art. Beginning with Mandeville and Montaigne, and working through Montesquieu, Diderot, Gibbon, Herder, and others, Launay traces how Europeans both admired and disdained unfamiliar societies in their attempts to work through the inner conflicts of their own social worlds. Some of these writers drew caricatures of “savages,” “Oriental despots,” and “ancient” Greeks and Romans. Others earnestly attempted to understand them. But, throughout this history, comparative thinking opened a space for critical reflection. At its worst, such space could give rise to a sense of European superiority. At its best, however, it could prompt awareness of the value of other ways of being in the world. Launay’s masterful survey of some of the Western tradition’s finest minds offers a keen exploration of the genesis of the notion of “civilization,” as well as an engaging portrait of the promises and perils of cross-cultural comparison. |
what is oriental despotism: Unfabling the East Jürgen Osterhammel, 2019-11-19 During the long eighteenth century, Europe's travelers, scholars, and intellectuals looked to Asia in a spirit of puzzlement, irony, and openness. In this panoramic and colorful book, Jürgen Osterhammel tells the story of the European Enlightenment's nuanced encounter with the great civilizations of the East, from the Ottoman Empire and India to China and Japan. Here is the acclaimed book that challenges the notion that Europe's formative engagement with the non-European world was invariably marred by an imperial gaze and presumptions of Western superiority. Osterhammel shows how major figures such as Leibniz, Voltaire, Gibbon, and Hegel took a keen interest in Asian culture and history, and introduces lesser-known scientific travelers, colonial administrators, Jesuit missionaries, and adventurers who returned home from Asia bearing manuscripts in many exotic languages, huge collections of ethnographic data, and stories that sometimes defied belief. Osterhammel brings the sights and sounds of this tumultuous age vividly to life, from the salons of Paris and the lecture halls of Edinburgh to the deserts of Arabia, the steppes of Siberia, and the sumptuous courts of Asian princes. He demonstrates how Europe discovered its own identity anew by measuring itself against its more senior continent, and how it was only toward the end of this period that cruder forms of Eurocentrism--and condescension toward Asia--prevailed. |
what is oriental despotism: The First Democracies Eric W. Robinson, 1997 Athens is often considered to have been the birth place of democracy but there were many democracies in Greece during the Archaic and Classical periods and this is a study of the other democratic states. Robinson begins by discussing ancient and modern definitions of democracy, he then examines Greek terminology, investigates the evidence for other early democratic states and draws conclusions about its emergence. |
what is oriental despotism: Oriental Despotism Karl August Wittfogel, 1981 Theorizes on the origins of despotism and its modern forms. |
what is oriental despotism: Wealth And Poverty Of Nations David S. Landes, 2015-04-20 The history of nations is a history of haves and have-nots, and as we approach the millennium, the gap between rich and poor countries is widening. In this engrossing and important new work, eminent historian David Landes explores the complex, fascinating and often startling causes of the wealth and poverty of nations. The answers are found not only in the large forces at work in economies: geography, religion, the broad swings of politics, but also in the small surprising details. In Europe, the invention of spectacles doubled the working life of skilled craftsmen, and played a prominent role in the creation of articulated machines, and in China, the failure to adopt the clock fundamentally hindered economic development. The relief of poverty is vital to the survival of us all. As David Landes brilliantly shows, the key to future success lies in understanding the lessons the past has to teach us - lessons uniquely imparted in this groundbreaking and vital book which exemplifies narrative history at its best. |
what is oriental despotism: Chinese Local Elites and Patterns of Dominance Conference on Chinese Local Elites and Patterns of Dominance (1987 : Banff, Alta.), Joint Committee on Chinese Studies (U.S.), 1990-01-01 This important volume affords a panoramic view of local elites during the dramatic changes of late imperial and Republic China. Eleven specialists present fresh, detailed studies of subjects ranging from cultivated upper gentry to twentieth-century militarists, from wealthy urban merchants to village leaders. In the introduction and conclusion the editors reassess the pioneering gentry studies of the 1960s, draw comparisons to elites in Europe, and suggest new ways of looking at the top people in Chinese local social systems. Chinese Local Elites and Patterns of Dominance lays the foundation for future discussions of Chinese elites and provides a solid introduction for non-specialists. Essays are by Stephen C. Averill, Lenore Barkan, Lynda S. Bell, Timothy Brook, Prasenjit Duara, Edward A. McCord, William T. Rowe, Keith Schoppa, David Strand, Rubie S. Watson, and Madeleine Zelin. This important volume affords a panoramic view of local elites during the dramatic changes of late imperial and Republic China. Eleven specialists present fresh, detailed studies of subjects ranging from cultivated upper gentry to twentieth-century militarists, from wealthy urban merchants to village leaders. In the introduction and conclusion the editors reassess the pioneering gentry studies of the 1960s, draw comparisons to elites in Europe, and suggest new ways of looking at the top people in Chinese local social systems. Chinese Local Elites and Patterns of Dominance lays the foundation for future discussions of Chinese elites and provides a solid introduction for non-specialists. Essays are by Stephen C. Averill, Lenore Barkan, Lynda S. Bell, Timothy Brook, Prasenjit Duara, Edward A. McCord, William T. Rowe, Keith Schoppa, David Strand, Rubie S. Watson, and Madeleine Zelin. |
what is oriental despotism: Catholic Orientalism Ângela Barreto Xavier, Ines G. Županov, 2015 This book explores the process of knowledge production in and about South Asia during the late medieval and early modern periods. Disseminated through the global networks of the early modern Portuguese empire (16th-18th centuries), this process was inextricably connected to the expansion of Catholicism and was geared to perpetuate political ambitions and cultural imaginary of the early modern Catholic protagonists and their communities in South Asia and beyond. As an integral part of the Portuguese imperial 'information order' established in Asia, Catholic Orientalism was responsible for creating an epistemic tool box, in which several significant concepts were first tested and developed: such as caste, Brahmanism, paganism, the torrid zone, oriental despotism, and many others. However, from the mid-18th century, the British empire changed the map of knowledge about South Asia and in the process Catholic Orientalism was both assimilated and discarded as tainted by unreasonable Catholicism and too close to equally unreasonable native Indian point of view. Through a series of case studies, this book chronicles the rise and the decline of the Catholic knowledge of South Asia which had not been, at any point, only and simply Portuguese. Multiple sources, polyglot archives and actors moving ever more swiftly through space and time, with divided loyalties, often disregarding national divisions and wearing many different hats are at the heart of the narrative which starts at the turn of the 16th century and ends by the end of the 18th. |
what is oriental despotism: Oriental Despotism K. A. Wittfogel, 1953 |
Why is the word “oriental” considered offensive? - Reddit
Dec 29, 2023 · The full name of such county is "República Oriental del Uruguay" ("Uruguay" being the river that separates us from Argentina). Normally, we refer to our nationally as …
What's your take on the term "Oriental"? - Reddit
Feb 25, 2023 · “Oriental” is a word used to contrast “The West,” which is strongly tied to white supremacy. A less charged example that illustrates this: the Orient Express. It goes East.
Why is it offensive to say oriental? - r/AskReddit
It seems that the word 'oriental' has, in North America', come to be used to refer only to material objects (an Oriental rug, etc). Perhaps when you call an Asian person 'Oriental', they feel they …
Why is the word "Oriental" considered an offensive term in
Feb 28, 2019 · Fun fact, "Oriental" nowadays means "relating to south or east Asia", but in the Middle Ages it actually meant "in the direction of Jerusalem". The only people "Oriental" …
Why is "Oriental" racist? : r/NoStupidQuestions - Reddit
Oriental was used to refer to anyone with yellow skin (like the Chinese) and is considered on par with the N word, though asians don’t tend to get nearly as upset about its usage. Canada …
Oriental Roach Problem - Professional treatment done and still
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r/AsianBootyShaking - Reddit
May 28, 2024 · r/AsianBootyShaking: A community devoted to seeing Asian women's asses twerk, shake, bounce, wobble, jiggle, or otherwise gyrate.
(Taiyuan Airport) Oriental Lounge or Plaza Premium Lounge?
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Crusader Kings - Reddit
Crusader Kings is a historical grand strategy / RPG game series for PC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation 5 & Xbox Series X|S developed & published by Paradox Development Studio. Engage in courtly …
List of Chinese Cultivation (Wuxia, Xianxia, etc NOT ... - Reddit
-Oriental Empires (A 4x strategy game based on the 3 kingdoms lore. Available in English) -Immortal Life (Not a sect builder perse. Not directly, at least. This game is a cultivation themed …
Why is the word “oriental” considered offensive? - Reddit
Dec 29, 2023 · The full name of such county is "República Oriental del Uruguay" ("Uruguay" being the river that separates us from Argentina). Normally, we refer to our nationally as …
What's your take on the term "Oriental"? - Reddit
Feb 25, 2023 · “Oriental” is a word used to contrast “The West,” which is strongly tied to white supremacy. A less charged example that illustrates this: the Orient Express. It goes East.
Why is it offensive to say oriental? - r/AskReddit
It seems that the word 'oriental' has, in North America', come to be used to refer only to material objects (an Oriental rug, etc). Perhaps when you call an Asian person 'Oriental', they feel they …
Why is the word "Oriental" considered an offensive term in
Feb 28, 2019 · Fun fact, "Oriental" nowadays means "relating to south or east Asia", but in the Middle Ages it actually meant "in the direction of Jerusalem". The only people "Oriental" …
Why is "Oriental" racist? : r/NoStupidQuestions - Reddit
Oriental was used to refer to anyone with yellow skin (like the Chinese) and is considered on par with the N word, though asians don’t tend to get nearly as upset about its usage. Canada …
Oriental Roach Problem - Professional treatment done and still
Oct 4, 2022 · Oriental egg cases hold 18 instars, so one female can cause some real trouble, so give it time. here's my recommendations: American and oriental roaches do not infest like …
r/AsianBootyShaking - Reddit
May 28, 2024 · r/AsianBootyShaking: A community devoted to seeing Asian women's asses twerk, shake, bounce, wobble, jiggle, or otherwise gyrate.
(Taiyuan Airport) Oriental Lounge or Plaza Premium Lounge?
Jun 21, 2023 · Update: Just went to the Oriental Lounge in TPE Terminal 2, and it was one of the best Priority Pass lounges I’ve gotten into with my Chase credit card. It wasn’t very busy, there …
Crusader Kings - Reddit
Crusader Kings is a historical grand strategy / RPG game series for PC, Mac, Linux, PlayStation 5 & Xbox Series X|S developed & published by Paradox Development Studio. Engage in courtly …
List of Chinese Cultivation (Wuxia, Xianxia, etc NOT ... - Reddit
-Oriental Empires (A 4x strategy game based on the 3 kingdoms lore. Available in English) -Immortal Life (Not a sect builder perse. Not directly, at least. This game is a cultivation themed …