History of Multicultural Education Book

Ian Buruma and Avishai Margalit outline 'Occidentalism' as an attempt to understand anti-westernism during the last century. In some ways this work resembles Pankaj Mishra's 'Age of Anger', which argued the Enlightenment replaced moral certainties of medieval religion with modern angst. Buruma says the technology that led the West to global domination in the 19th century was needed by the East to compete. Japan's emulative advances during the Meiji restoration and post-WWII periods are reviewed. Hitler's hatred of mechanization and embrace of its efficiencies is noted. The rise of Islamist militants is seen as a reaction to cosmopolitan capitalism and its native collaborators.

Buruma begins with a survey of Occidentalism's urban face. Through history the city had been a symbol for greed and godlessness. The Tower of Babel, Juvenal's Rome and the dark satanic mills of Blake are examples given. In the 19th century, London and Paris were criticized by anti-semites Wagner and T.S. Eliot. The metropolis swallowed rural people and was filled with "rootless money-grubbers". Fascists and communists appropriated the theme. 1930's Tokyo and Shanghai became models of commercialism, stigmatized by native critics for displacing indigenous culture. Maoists in Shanghai, the Khmer Rouge in Phnom Penh and the Taliban in Kabul later conducted purges.

Buruma traces the backlash towards liberal European dominance to the German romantic and Russian slavophile movements. Nazis and Bolsheviks alike sought the purifying power of fire and steel. The rise of pan-Arabism and Baathist movements were seen by some Muslims as cultural collusion with the west. The authors compare Marxist ideas about the fetish of commodities to Islamic understandings of idolatry. The ancient idols had been replaced by capitalism in the view of religious radicals. The battle between "heroes and merchants" is continued by middle eastern suicide bombers and millenarian movements. As reflected by an Afghan jihadi: "They love Pepsi, but we love death".

Published in 2004 after 911, the concept of 'Occidentalism' may now seem interchangeable with anti-Americanism. This book finds it's roots in an earlier industrialization of peasants into factory workers. A lack of spiritual reconciliation became a toxic split between the East and West. Although it is possible to perceive this as a response to Edward Said's 'Orientalism', it is not a diametrical work. Said critiqued 19th century literary aspects of colonialism, and this addresses 20th century political reactions to modernity. While not as seminal, it is still a thoughtful summary. Buruma is a Dutch writer and journalist in NYC, and Margalit is an Israeli philosopher and professor.