Occidentalism : The West in the Eyes of Its Enemies

This grandly illuminating study of two centuries of anti-Western ideas” (Foreign Affairs) traces the historical roots of a virulent set of stereotypes about Westerners and the West, a cluster of notions and prejudices that Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit call Occidentalism. The path does not lead back to Islam but, in fact, back to the West itself. From nineteenth-century Germany and Russia to twentieth-century Japan, China, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, Buruma and Margalit track the spread of these noxious ideas. Drawing on their formidable range and gift for synthesis to place modern terrorists in a long continuum of enemies of Western liberal society, Buruma and Margalit have written a book of extraordinary clarity and wide-ranging relevance.

Ian Buruma is currently Luce Professor at Bard College. His previous books include God-'s Dust, Behind the Mask, The Missionary and the Libertine, Playing the Game, The Wages of Guilt, Anglomania, and Bad Elements.
Avishai Margalit is Schulman Professor of Philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His previous books include Idolatry, The Decent Society, Views and Reviews, and The Ethics of Memory.