How the World Made the West

Quinn keeps the revelations coming at a fair lick . . . Quinn has done a lot more than reinvent the wheel. What we have here is a truly encyclopaedic and monumental account of the ancient world. In 400 crisp pages, 30 societies are paraded before us with comparative reflection and world-weary wit. Better still, Quinns book is polemical. These days, far too many academic historians worship at the altar of nuance rather than argument, with the result that the reader closes the book not with a spirit of contentment, but rather with a question: so what? Not here -- Pratinav Anil * The Times * The book is rich in marvellous detail, and succeeds in making the pre-classical world come to life . . . Full of little gem-like shifts of perspective . . . Most of all, the book triumphs as a brilliant and learned challenge to modern western chauvinism -- Steven Poole * Guardian * Quinn demolishes the underlying concept of what she calls civilisational thinking. Her argument is simple, persuasive and deserving of attention . . . A brisk, scholarly romp across the arc of European history . . . This retelling of the Wests story scintillates with its focus on the unexpected and on the interstices between realms and eras rather than on historys big, solid bits. But it is also an admirable work of scholarship . . . Even seasoned history buffs will find much that is new and fascinating. How the World Made the West joins a growing sub-canon of works that explores the broad sweep of history using new intellectual framings, such as Yuval Noah Hararis Sapiens (2011), Peter Frankopans The Silk Roads (2015) and Fall of Civilisations . . . Whoever thought history was pass could not be more wrong * Economist * The evidence Quinn has accumulated is rich in arresting detail and she delivers it with engaging gusto . . . Quinn is acutely alive to the ways in which the remote past can serve modern political uses . . . An immense achievement -- Lucy Hughes-Hallett * New Statesman * Quinns purpose is to dethrone the privileged connection between the ancient Greeks and Romans and the modern west, and focus instead on the millennia of interaction with other cultures . . . Quinn pursues this claim with an impressive display of rigorous scholarship lightly worn, successfully covering a huge amount of material -- Tristram Hunt * Financial Times * How the World Made the West has plenty of myths about the ancient world to dispel . . . Show[s] that progress in the ancient world and beyond was driven by connections between peoples and places rather than by discrete cultural centres (namely Greece and Rome) . . . The vicissitudes in each centres fortunes make for a dynamic narrative, as cities that were once great are swept away, and new ones spring up in their wake . . . It is one of the strengths of How the World Made the West that it forces us to think outside the usual parameters of antiquity -- Daisy Dunn * Telegraph * A broader view of antiquity, and indeed of the Middle Ages, is required. Quinn is the right person to provide it . . . Quinn is admirably thought-provoking and deploys plenty of fascinating evidence, based on the latest discoveries . . . This is a very readable book, whose lively and original ideas should stimulate plenty of debate -- David Abulafia * Literary Review * Quinn brings archaeology, DNA analysis and history together to show how such dividing lines mislead us about an ancient world defined by connections, both peaceful and violent . . . Each chapters excellent map helps to keep such journeys in perspective . . . It is extremely impressive to follow the dynamic flow and breadth of her narrative . . . A masterfully woven story -- Christopher Kissane * Irish Times * A revelatory account of how the ancient world was much wider and more interconnected than traditionally thought - and the lessons that holds for today -- What to Read in 2024 * Financial Times * Astounding . . . Both erudite and witty, sweeping

Josephine Quinn is Professor of Ancient History at the University of Cambridge, the first woman to hold this Chair. She has degrees from Oxford and the University of California, Berkeley, has taught in America, Italy and at Oxford, and co-directed the TunisianBritish archaeological excavations at Utica. She is a regular contributor to the London Review of Books, as well as to radio and television programmes. She is the author of one previous book, the award-winning In Search of the Phoenicians.