The Dictionary of Global Culture What Every American Needs to Know as We Enter the Next Century--from Diderot to Bo Diddley

Reference/World History "Consistently informative, lively, and accurate . . . a pathbreaking achievement." --The New York Times Book Review s the world's axes of population, power, and commerce shift from North to South and from West to East, the old Eurocentric model of culture is giving way to a new global paradigm. This dictionary, which has been compiled by two of our most esteemed scholars, is the first work of its kind to devote equal emphasis to the cultural contributions of the non-Western world alongside those of Europe and North America. Prepared by regional experts from five continents (including both scholars from other cultures and Western scholars of other cultures), the book's more than 1,200 entries include: Chinua Achebe Aeschylus Bo Diddley Denis Diderot Martha Graham The Great Leap Forward Igbo Inanna Jainism Henry James John Milton Yukio Mishima Ramayana Raphael Francois Toussaint L'Ouverture Trail of Tears Zionism Zydeco Vast in scope and lucidly written, The Dictionary of Global Culture is an indispensable reference for students, businesspeople, or anyone seeking a foothold in the civilization of the next millennium. "Detailed, accurate and solid. . . . It contains much to interest and inform." --Baltimore Sun

Kwame Anthony Appiah, the president of the PEN American Center, is the author of The Ethics of Identity, Thinking It Through: An Introduction to Contemporary Philosophy, The Honor Code, and the prize-winning Cosmopolitanism. Raised in Ghana and educated in England, he has taught philosophy on three continents and is currently a professor at Princeton University.