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The West: A New History of an Old Idea by Naoíse Mac Sweeney

Rivals and Roots

Duration: 14 minutes

First broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FMLatest broadcast: on BBC Radio 4 FM

Available for years

If we reject the grand narrative of the West as it has been presented, what alternatives are there? How are we to understand our future by looking at past and what do contemporary rivals of the West, particularly China, believe of their own history?

Is 'Plato to Nato' actually true? How has the myth of the West and its exclusively European origins been built and maintained? A brilliant and rigorous interpretation of history that reflects the diversity of ideas and figures in the West.

Using the lives of historical figures from ancient Greece to present day, historian Naoise Mac Sweeney interrogates the idea of the West and its claims to Greco-Roman lineage.

Read by Nina Sosanya
Written by Naoise Mac Sweeney
Abridged by Patricia Cumper
Produced by Naomi Walmsley Show less

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