Europe Reconsidered

Europe Reconsidered PDF Author: Tapan Raychaudhuri
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 428

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Book Description
This history of the changing perceptions of, and attitudes towards Europe in nineteenth-century Bengal among the Bengali intelligentsia examines in detail the ideas of three key men during a time of social, cultural, and intellectual confrontation between the East and the West: Bhudev Mukhopadhyay, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, and Swami Vivekananda. It explores their attempts to grapple with the intellectual dilemma of their times as represented by the East-West encounter. The three men possessed considerable scholarship and erudition, and came from the same social milieu of upper-class urban Bengal, yet each had very different perceptions of the West. The nineteenth-century Bengali experience under colonialism was part of a global phenomenon inasmuch as the province, like many other areas of Asia, was subject to European imperialism. Bengal was thus "perhaps the earliest manifestation of the revolution in the mental world of Asia's elite groups." Nearer home, it represented the general experience of the Indian subcontinent as a whole, but at "its most complex and well informed level." These changing perceptions and attitudes mediated all new initiatives in the society and polity of Asian peoples in modern times. The changes, in their turn, were crucially influenced by perceptions of Europe. The author explores the ideas regarding Europe as presented in the writings of these three very influential writers, who represented as well as shaped widely held opinions. The book touches on orientalism, hermeneutics, cultural contact between Europe and Asia, European expansion, the nineteenth-century 'Renaissance' in India, and the colonial middle classes in Asia. It is a significant addition to the meagre literature available on Indian perceptions of the West. In his new introduction to this new edition the author links the book to the wider themes in his current research; he also explains points in his argument which, he feels, have been misunderstood. Appended to this edition is a memorial lecture by the author in honour of his teacher, Susobhan Sarkar, which reassesses the concept of the 'Bengal Renaissance.'

Europe Reconsidered

Europe Reconsidered PDF Author: Tapan Raychaudhuri
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 428

Get Book Here

Book Description
This history of the changing perceptions of, and attitudes towards Europe in nineteenth-century Bengal among the Bengali intelligentsia examines in detail the ideas of three key men during a time of social, cultural, and intellectual confrontation between the East and the West: Bhudev Mukhopadhyay, Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, and Swami Vivekananda. It explores their attempts to grapple with the intellectual dilemma of their times as represented by the East-West encounter. The three men possessed considerable scholarship and erudition, and came from the same social milieu of upper-class urban Bengal, yet each had very different perceptions of the West. The nineteenth-century Bengali experience under colonialism was part of a global phenomenon inasmuch as the province, like many other areas of Asia, was subject to European imperialism. Bengal was thus "perhaps the earliest manifestation of the revolution in the mental world of Asia's elite groups." Nearer home, it represented the general experience of the Indian subcontinent as a whole, but at "its most complex and well informed level." These changing perceptions and attitudes mediated all new initiatives in the society and polity of Asian peoples in modern times. The changes, in their turn, were crucially influenced by perceptions of Europe. The author explores the ideas regarding Europe as presented in the writings of these three very influential writers, who represented as well as shaped widely held opinions. The book touches on orientalism, hermeneutics, cultural contact between Europe and Asia, European expansion, the nineteenth-century 'Renaissance' in India, and the colonial middle classes in Asia. It is a significant addition to the meagre literature available on Indian perceptions of the West. In his new introduction to this new edition the author links the book to the wider themes in his current research; he also explains points in his argument which, he feels, have been misunderstood. Appended to this edition is a memorial lecture by the author in honour of his teacher, Susobhan Sarkar, which reassesses the concept of the 'Bengal Renaissance.'

Europe Reconsidered

Europe Reconsidered PDF Author: Tapan Raychaudhuri
Publisher: Delhi ; New York : Oxford University Press
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
The book charts 19th-century Bengal's changing perceptions of and attitudes toward the West as embodied in the lives and ideas of three leading figures--Buhdev Mukhopadhyay, Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay, and Swami Vivekananda--providing important insights into an important period in Indian intellectual history.

State and Civil Society in Northern Europe

State and Civil Society in Northern Europe PDF Author: Lars Trägårdh
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 1782382003
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
In the current neo-liberal political and economic climate, it is often suggested that a large and strong state stands in opposition to an autonomous and vibrant civil society. However, the simultaneous presence in Sweden of both a famously large public sector and an unusually vital civil society poses an interesting and important theoretical challenge to these views with serious political and policy implications. Studies show that in a comparative context Sweden scores very highly when it comes to the strength and vitality of its civil society as well as social capital, as measured in terms of trust, lack of corruption, and membership of voluntary associations. The “Swedish Model,” therefore, offers important insights into the dynamics of state and civil society relations, which go against current trends of undermining the importance of the welfare state, and presents autonomous civic participation as the only way forward.

The Warsaw Pact Reconsidered

The Warsaw Pact Reconsidered PDF Author: Laurien Crump
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317555309
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
The Warsaw Pact is generally regarded as a mere instrument of Soviet power. In the 1960s the alliance nevertheless evolved into a multilateral alliance, in which the non-Soviet Warsaw Pact members gained considerable scope for manoeuvre. This book examines to what extent the Warsaw Pact inadvertently provided its members with an opportunity to assert their own interests, emancipate themselves from the Soviet grip, and influence Soviet bloc policy. Laurien Crump traces this development through six thematic case studies, which deal with such well known events as the building of the Berlin Wall, the Sino-Soviet Split, the Vietnam War, the nuclear question, and the Prague Spring. By interpreting hitherto neglected archival evidence from archives in Berlin, Bucharest, and Rome, and approaching the Soviet alliance from a radically novel perspective, the book offers unexpected insights into international relations in Eastern Europe, while shedding new light on a pivotal period in the Cold War.

War and Social Change in Modern Europe

War and Social Change in Modern Europe PDF Author: Sandra Halperin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521540155
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 540

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Book Description
Halperin traces the persistence of traditional class structures during the development of industrial capitalism in Europe, and the way in which these structures shaped states and state behavior and generated conflict. She documents European conflicts between 1789 and 1914, including small and medium scale conflicts often ignored by researchers and links these conflicts to structures characteristic of industrial capitalist development in Europe before 1945. This book revisits the historical terrain of Karl Polanyi's The Great Transformation (1944), however, it argues that Polanyi's analysis is, in important ways, inaccurate and misleading. Ultimately, the book shows how and why the conflicts both culminated in the world wars and brought about a 'great transformation' in Europe. Its account of this period challenges not only Polanyi's analysis, but a variety of influential perspectives on nationalism, development, conflict, international systems change, and globalization.

Travels to Europe

Travels to Europe PDF Author: Simonti Sen
Publisher: Orient Blackswan
ISBN: 9788125027386
Category : Travel
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
This work examines in detail the world of travelogues of a highly interesting culture-universe: the Bengali bhadralok. A travelogue is usually a crucial political/aesthetic text. Its very fabric is structured in space and power - it creates, relates, compares and contrasts spaces and powers. Bengalis travelling to Europe in the colonial period felt compelled to produce such texts. An analysis of these works from a historian's angle provides crucial windows to the colonised mind striving for self-definition. Trailokyanath Mukherjee, Romesh Chandra Dutt, Krishnabhabini Das, Swami Vivekananda, Rabindranath Tagore and other travellers aimed to demystify the myth of Europe by establishing physical contact. Their depictions of the reality of the colonial metropolis served as acts of self-assertion, dislocating England from its position of centrality. Simonti Sen studies in detail the conflicted narratives of minds that aimed to reconcile a Western education with an incipient sense of national self. In doing so, she raises issues regarding national definition which are as relevant today as they were a century ago. This work would appeal to readers interested in the history of India and, in particular, of Bengal; it would also appeal to those involved in literature and cultural studies.

Normative Power Europe

Normative Power Europe PDF Author: R. Whitman
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 0230305601
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
The notion of Normative Power Europe (NPE) is that the EU is an 'ideational' actor characterised by common principles and acting to diffuse norms within international relations. Contributors assess the impact of NPE and offer new perspectives for the future exploration of one of the most widely used ideas in the study of the EU in the last decade.

European Politics Reconsidered

European Politics Reconsidered PDF Author: B. Guy Peters
Publisher: Holmes & Meier Publishers
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description


Rethinking Europe's Future

Rethinking Europe's Future PDF Author: David P. Calleo
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069111367X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 411

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Book Description
Rethinking Europe's Future is a major reevaluation of Europe's prospects as it enters the twenty-first century. David Calleo has written a book worthy of the complexity and grandeur of the challenges Europe now faces. Summoning the insights of history, political economy, and philosophy, he explains why Europe was for a long time the world's greatest problem and how the Cold War's bipolar partition brought stability of a sort. Without the Cold War, Europe risks revisiting its more traditional history. With so many contingent factors--in particular Russia and Europe's Muslim neighbors--no one, Calleo believes, can pretend to predict the future with assurance. Calleo's book ponders how to think about this future. The book begins by considering the rival ''lessons'' and trends that emerge from Europe's deeper past. It goes on to discuss the theories for managing the traditional state system, the transition from autocratic states to communitarian nation states, the enduring strength of nation states, and their uneasy relationship with capitalism. Calleo next focuses on the Cold War's dynamic legacies for Europe--an Atlantic Alliance, a European Union, and a global economy. These three systems now compete to define the future. The book's third and major section examines how Europe has tried to meet the present challenges of Russian weakness and German reunification. Succeeding chapters focus on Maastricht and the Euro, on the impact of globalization on Europeanization, and on the EU's unfinished business--expanding into ''Pan Europe,'' adapting a hybrid constitution, and creating a new security system. Calleo presents three models of a new Europe--each proposing a different relationship with the U.S. and Russia. A final chapter probes how a strong European Union might affect the world and the prospects for American hegemony. This is a beautifully written book that offers rich insight into a critical moment in our history, whose outcome will shape the world long after our time.

Reconsidering National Plays in Europe

Reconsidering National Plays in Europe PDF Author: Suze van der Poll
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319753347
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
This volume frames the concept of a national play. By analysing a number of European case studies, it addresses the following question: Which play could be regarded as a country's national play, and how does it represent its national identity? The chapters provide an in-depth look at plays in eight different countries: Germany (Die Räuber, Friedrich Schiller), Switzerland (Wilhelm Tell, Friedrich Schiller), Hungary (Bánk Bán, József Katona), Sweden (Gustav Vasa, August Strindberg), Norway (Peer Gynt, Henrik Ibsen), the Netherlands (The Good Hope, Herman Heijermans), France (Tartuffe, Molière), and Ireland. This collection is especially relevant at a time of socio-political flux, when national identity and the future of the nation state is being reconsidered.