From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, Europeans struggled to
understand their identity in the same way we do as individuals: by
comparing themselves to others. In Savages, Romans, and Despots,
Robert Launay takes us on a fascinating tour of early modern and modern
history in an attempt to untangle how various depictions of "foreign"
cultures and civilizations saturated debates about religion, morality,
politics, and art.
Beginning with Mandeville and Montaigne, and working through
Montesquieu, Diderot, Gibbon, Herder, and others, Launay traces how
Europeans both admired and disdained unfamiliar societies in their
attempts to work through the inner conflicts of their own social worlds.
Some of these writers drew caricatures of "savages," "Oriental despots,"
and "ancient" Greeks and Romans. Others earnestly attempted to
understand them. But, throughout this history, comparative thinking
opened a space for critical reflection. At its worst, such space could
give rise to a sense of European superiority. At its best, however, it
could prompt awareness of the value of other ways of being in the world.
Launay's masterful survey of some of the Western tradition's finest
minds offers a keen exploration of the genesis of the notion of
"civilization," as well as an engaging portrait of the promises and
perils of cross-cultural comparison.
