What is "Western Civilization"?
A little off my usual topics (or perhaps not). But history matters.
This piece is published today in the latest issue of the New English Review.
NER is open access, and you can leave comments there or here.
What Is “Western Civilization”?
New English Review, 1 June 2025
Stephen Baskerville, 12 December 2024
Dutch historian Hans Vogel has written a short but stimulating essay titled simply, “Western Civilization”, summarizing the accepted wisdom about what it is. The simplicity and boldness of the title reflects his inclusion of only a few high points that are taken to define Western Civilization, though I believe he has identified essential ones, and he presents them in terms that I find helpful for critiquing some basic assumptions. It is not clear how far he himself accepts the definition he presents; he seems to have doubts. Perhaps my own may help clarify matters.
The argument he summarizes is widely accepted, to the point of dominating our self-image in the West. But I think it is misleading. Moreover, it is debilitating: It traps us in a paradigm that limits our freedom of action. More specifically, it serves the interest of today’s ideological elites — both the now-dominant liberal-left establishment and the official conservative opposition — and impedes the rest of us from breaking free of the limited, one-dimensional range of options they construct. I will suggest an alternative.
He starts with the interesting and plausible observation that the very term and concept of “Western Civilization” is an American invention and serves ”the idea that the United States forms an integrated part of the Western world as its undisputed leader”. (…)
Please read the rest at the New English Review, June 2025.
If you want to read more analysis that will push you to think “outside the box,” you can find it in my new book, Who Lost America? Why the United States Went "Communist” — and What to Do about It — available from Amazon.
Stephen Baskerville is Professor of Politics at the Collegium Intermarium in Warsaw. His books and recent articles are available at www.StephenBaskerville.com.
The common theme is that all civilization started in East Africa (what is now Ethiopia) between 80-120,000 years ago. Five (5) tribes were disseminated from that area. One moved north into Europe. One moved northeast into Siberia to become Mongols, Chinese, Japanese, Korean. One moved southeast to become the Indo-Asian group that settled the Mideast, Iraq, Iran (Persian Empire), Pakistan, India, Southeast Asia, Australia, NZ, and Micronesia. One stayed in Africa. And the one that moved northeast and split from the Mongols and East Asia, crossed the Bering Land Bridge/Ice Bridge into North America. From there tribes moved into today's Canada and America. Some tribes continued South into Central and South America and became Aztecs, Mayans, Toltecs, etc. But, there is also new evidence that the tribes in North America had already been here and never migrated from Asia across the Bering Land/Ice Bridge.
There is now evidence that "white culture" was created when the northern tribe that moved through Europe by crossing through the eastern part of the Mideast, today known as Israel, Arabia, Turkey, and lost their dark skin color due to less sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere. Also, the tribe that moved into Europe may have commingled with Neanderthals that had a culture of their own. It is presently being discovered that Neanderthals were not the stupid brutes that people think. They had social order, were mechanically inclined to make tools, hunted and gathered food together, had a language, and had more advanced thinking than thought before. They understood the moon, sun and stars, as well as the animals they faced for food and defense. They were smart enough to move where the food and water was. This became a mix of Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon Man in Europe. Hence, "Western Civilization".
Western Civilization battled for territory and food. But, all civilizations throughout history did the same. It has been said that the human race was "fathered" by 7 men. One of those was Ghengis Khan who led millions across Asia into Europe. He had 3,000 children. King Ismail Ibn Sharif of Morocco had 1,171 children. Pharaoh Ramesses the Great had 170 children. King Solomon had over 1,000 wives and concubines, and had unknown amounts of children. Persian King Cyrus the Great was another since the Persian Empire led millions throughout the Mideast, Asia and parts of Europe.
And, yet Western Civilization killed millions of people in battles for supremacy and territory. Eastern Civilization did the same. All you need to do is look at China (killed over 100 MILLION of their own people in the Communist Cultural Revolution) and Japan (killed over 20 MILLION, mostly Chinese and Korean). And, given the Greek and Roman Empires, they were the biggest civilizations of the time that spread across continents.
The seminal moment that marked the shift in humanity's perception is contained in the story of the Exodus and culminated in the giving of the Torah. Ever since then, humanity has either acted to refute or embrace that moment in time. It was the Europeans who had been heavily infiltrated by the remnants of those tribes, both the physical and ideological remnants, that established a standard of living different from those to the east. Many of those Europeans traveled, engaged in the diaspora started by the Assyrians and boosted by Rome. We, the descendants, are the West. How long will we remain the West? To be determined. I am so pleased you wrote this essay.