Europe and Its Boundaries

Reviews / Votes

Pursuing Dipesh Chakrabarty's argument in Provincializing Europe, this volume explores the intrinsic ambivalence of Europe: its 'indispensable' status as a source of universal horizons and its simultaneous 'inadequacy' due to its hegemonic policies and agendas. Probing the continent's intimate connection with colonialism, anti-colonialism, post-colonialism, and cosmopolitanism, the authors show that Europe can only find itself by losing itself in robust dialogue with other cultures and traditions. An important contribution to cross-cultural and post-colonial studies. -- Fred Dallmayr, University of Notre Dame This collection of original, thoughtful, and sometimes absolutely brilliant essays questions and extends the project of 'provincializing Europe' in novel and unanticipated ways. By discussing in depth both European ideas and identities and their entanglement in the histories of peoples once dominated by European empires, the essays assembled here manage to insert the question of colonialism right at the heart of today's discussions about the boundaries of Europe. -- Dipesh Chakrabarty, University of Chicago The essays in Europe and its Boundaries explore with great imagination and intelligence the project of provincializing Europe, illuminating the possibilities for a more ethical and more critical scholarly and pedagogical practice. -- Timothy Mitchell, Columbia University Europe and Its Boundaries offers a timely caution as political and social theorists aim to produce global theory. If political and social theory is to be global (or at least comparative), it needs to slow down and cultivate the skills necessary for thinking beyond Europe's colonial relationship to others. These compelling essays are a wonderful place to begin, confronting us with the interpretive problems and possibilities of thinking "Europe" and "European thought" as a moment in a dialogical process. -- David Blaney, Professor of Political Science, Macalester College, USA