Hoover Institution scholar-in-residence Sowell concludes a trilogy
that began with Race and Culture (1994) and Migrations and Cultures
(1996) by considering - in sometimes stimulating, sometimes muddled
fashion - the momentous consequences of long-term military
occupation on subject peoples. The history of conquests, Sowell
writes, applies not just to the past; it's also "about how we came
to be where we are economically, intellectually, and morally."
Beginning with the British (who were subjugated by the Romans, only
to create their own empire more than a millennium later), Sowell
goes on to analyze the complex interaction between conquering and
subject peoples in the case of the Africans, the Slavs of eastern
Europe, and Western Hemisphere Indians. Sowell acutely details ways
that geography can spur or stall industry (e.g., the lack of
mineral deposits and navigable waterways retarded commerce in the
Balkans while western Europe began to pull ahead). Even more
important than geographic assets, however, is what Sowell calls
"human capital" the combination of skills, experience, and
orientation. The Scots, for instance, following their absorption
into England, achieved a renaissance of science and medicine.
Sowell aims to be hard-headed, challenging notions that all
cultures are equally worthy. Often, however, his conclusions are
simplistic. He criticizes postcolonial African leaders, for
instance, for studying "soft" subjects rather than "hard" ones such
as math, science, engineering, and medicine, but he doesn't say
that in the West, business growth has frequently been created by
marketers who have studied English, psychology, law, and even
politics. Moreover, except in the case of the Soviet Union, many of
his sources are more than a decade old. This lack of recent
specialized studies leads to omissions that call into question some
of his conclusions (e.g., while noting that Ireland's economy
sputtered into the late 1980s, he doesn't mention that country's
more recent boom). Fascinating analysis vitiated, over the course
of this trilogy, by repetition, insulting national comparisons, and
superficial history. (Kirkus Reviews)
This book is the culmination of 15 years of research and travels
that have taken the author completely around the world twice, as
well as on other travels in the Mediterranean, the Baltic, and
around the Pacific rim.
Its purpose has been to try to understand
the role of cultural differences within nations and between
nations, today and over centuries of history, in shaping the
economic and social fates of peoples and of whole civilizations.
Focusing on four major cultural areas(that of the British, the
Africans (including the African diaspora), the Slavs of Eastern
Europe, and the indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere,
Conquests and Cultures reveals patterns that encompass not only
these peoples but others and help explain the role of cultural
evolution in economic, social, and political development.
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