Blogs > DEFENDING THE WEST AGAINST EDWARD SAID

Apr 16, 2008

DEFENDING THE WEST AGAINST EDWARD SAID



Edward Said had the field all to himself for far too long. Iban Warraq seeks to change this state of a affairs with his book Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism. I have yet to read the book but my own reading of Orientalism left me open to this attempt to rebalance the scale:

In this thorough reconsideration of Said’s famous work, Ibn Warraq argues that Said’s case against the West is seriously flawed. Warraq accuses Said of not only willfully misinterpreting the work of many scholars, but also of systematically misrepresenting Western civilization as a whole. With example after example, he shows that ever since the Greeks Western civilization has always had a strand in its very makeup that has accepted non-Westerners with open arms and has ever been open to foreign ideas. The author also criticizes Said for inadequate methodology, incoherent arguments, and a faulty historical understanding. He points out, not only Said’s tendentious interpretations, but historical howlers that would make a sophomore blush.

There are some good readers' reviews of the book on Amazon and a very long and positive one on Atlas Shrugs.



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