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

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

Empire

BBC Radio 4 - The West: A New History of an Old Idea by Naoíse Mac Sweeney, Empire

Interrogating the narrative of the west, and its creation of Empire and the 'new world'.

What role did the narrative of a White and culturally coherent west play in allowing Europe to conquer and colonise most of the known world? Read by Nina Sosanya.

At one point Britain alone had an Empire on which the sun never set. How did Europe as it was, conquer and colonise most of the known world? Technology certainly played a part, but how did the narrative of the cultural inheritance of the West and it increasingly racialised definitions contribute? The clever diplomacy of Njinga of Angola, ideological wranglings of founding father Joseph Warren and sheer life and skill of poetess Phillis Wheatley have some light to shed.

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

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Factual: History

Naoise Mac Sweeney interrogates the myth of the west and its exclusively European origins.

Book of the Week. Using historical figures from ancient Greece to present day, historian Naoise Mac Sweeney interrogates the myth of the west and its exclusively European origins.

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

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