From Plato to NATO : The Idea of the West and Its Opponents

Rating:
Summary: An Exceptional Work
Review: David Gress certainly does have a habit of burying into the some of the overlooked or uncomfortable aspects of our history and dragging his findings out into the sunlight, evidenced by this substantial work as well as his regular articles for the Danish newspaper Politiken. He is also, above all, a true academic (I use that term in its most positive connotation), who has little time for pretentious pseudo-intellectuals who clutter libraries with their scribblings and demean the currency of academia. His work is careful and penetrating, while frequently revealing the subtle humour and flourishes of someone who clearly enjoys practicing his art. In this book, he examines the heretofore seemingly settled question of the "real" West, arguing that our involvement in two world wars forced us to see the history of the West through lenses significantly biased against recognizing the myriad Germanic influences which so profoundly affected Western culture. [Those interested in the topic of German influences on the US public school curriculum may wish to read "The Underground History of American Education" by award-winning author John Taylor Gatto (New York City Teacher of the Year in 1989, 1990 and 1991, and New York State Teacher of the Year in 1990 and 1991).]

Particularly interesting to me was his effort to provide the reader not only with an overview of history but also a view to how history is portrayed and debated in the current day. Allan Bloom's philosophical handwringing in The Closing of the American Mind and Francis Fukuyama's famous and fabulously absurd End of History essay are placed into a perspective which is familiar yet unique and thought-provoking. Gress provides exceptionally well-reasoned and well-crafted arguments to support his positions. He does an exceedingly good job of anticipating attacks, pre-emptively establishing and reinforcing his defenses against potential detractors.

While the author's writing style always is logical, frank and uncontrived, one gets the feeling there is much in David Gress' thinking that he does not reveal. Nevertheless, unlike some other "historians" with thinly-veiled agendas, in Gress' case it probably stems more from the scope of the subject matter and constraints of writing a single book, contrasted against the obvious ease with which he moves through the centuries and millenia, addressing vast areas of history and historical themes with ease, enthusiasm and obvious affection. Clearly, in many areas there is much he would like to say, but does not.

This comprehensive, enjoyable and valuable work - a trip to the candystore for the history buff - clearly required substantial time and effort to compile, and the author is to be commended for his substantial devotion and contribution to advancing our understanding of the Western heritage, and perhaps also implying suggestions for the path forward.

Rating:
Summary: An Invaluable Deconstruction of the Liberal Grand Narrative.
Review: David Gress's _From Plato to NATO: The Idea of the West and Its Opponents_ is not only a 550 page book on the history of Western culture and civilization, but a deconstruction of the way Western history has been commonly taught in the past twentieth century. The so-called "Grand Narrative," developed after WWI by Columbia University, the University of Chicago and the popular historians Will and Ariel Durant in their multi-volume _History of Civilization_ series, told a story of the progressive development of civilization, democracy, freedom and liberty beginning in ancient Greece, continuing unabated until modern democratic states. Actually, not totally without negative incidents. The history of imperial Rome, the rise of Christianity in late antiquity with its subsequent Church-state symbiosis, and the middle ages, represent a break in this historical liberal continuity that reemerged during the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Enlightenment out of which the modern West arose. This Grand narrative failed to acknowledge, the main point Gress makes, the contributions of Rome, Christianity and Germanic culture to Western civilization. However, the Grand Narrative's time frame was limited from its origins in the 1920s until roughly 1960 when far-left, multicultural, universalistic, postmodern and feminist interpretations of Western history made their appearance. While the Grand Narrative took a positive look at the West as a bastion of liberalism and progressivism, the 1960s interpretation took a totally negative perspective: the West as racist, sexist, patriarchal, capitalistic and oppressive. According to Gress, one of the reasons the Grand Narrative became so unpopular so quickly was that it was founded on the wrong presuppositions as to what constituted the West and overemphasized Greece at the expense of Rome, the Germans and the Catholic Church. Part of the entire problem with interpreting history is how the all-important concept of "liberty" is to be defined. Two distinct definitions exist. One is the original or classical definition of liberty as freedom over one's property without any undue government interference. The other, more upbeat stance defines liberty in terms of equality-of rights, privileges, etc. for everyone in society. However, liberty and equality tend to cancel each other out; people can be dummied down to be "equal" with others but they cannot be "forced to be free." Although Gress dismisses environmentalist concerns as pseudo-science and impeding progress especially in the Third World, I agree that environmentalism should not be attached to collectivist left-wing political agendas. In his conclusion, Gress discusses the different views--all of them liberal and multicultural--which have attempted to define Western identity since the fall of the Soviet Union, such as it continues to remain distinct from the rest of the world. The "West" itself has stood for many different things in the past. It is a land of youth, power and beauty but simultaneously where the sunsets and darkness and decline seem to inevitably set in.

Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: Gress's 'Plato to Nato' is an amazing text. Espically exciting is his wonderful commentary on the Cold War and the nature of the conflict between the Soviet Union and the West. Once you start this text it is impossible to put down, or look at the world quite the same way again.

Rating:
Summary: A momentous book
Review: I have never read such a good, comprehensive history of the idea of the West. Too often, historians and commentators have focussed on the classical and modern avatars of it, ignoring the thousand years of history known as the Middle Ages. Gress does not make that mistake: his wide reading and understanding makes his book one of the most satisfying and deep works of cultural history I have ever read. And it is most readable, what's more!

Rating:
Summary: Magisterial
Review: In this thought-provoking book, Dr. David Gress examines the history of the very idea of the West. At the beginning of the twentieth century, American educators put together a "Grand Narrative" of Western civilization, that claimed that democracy and freedom began in ancient Greece, suffered a setback with that civilization's fall, and then re-evolved in later times, reaching its height in twentieth century America. However, during the 1960s, and later, Western Civilization came under attack by a liberal elite that sees it not as a glorious march towards freedom, but a disgusting trail of racist, sexist (and so forth) crimes against humanity.

Dr. Gress shows how the West evolved, from ancient Rome right to the end of the twentieth century, and how the idea of the West evolved right along side of it. He shows what it is, what it is not, and how historians from all sides of the argument have gotten it wrong. This book is magisterial in its reach, which admittedly does mean that it is somewhat long and drawn out. For all that, though, this book is absolutely fascinating, and it gives the reader an excellent understanding of the West, where it came from, and (quite possibly) where it's going. I recommend this book to all serious thinkers.

Rating:
Summary: Magisterial
Review: In this thought-provoking book, Dr. David Gress examines the history of the very idea of the West. At the beginning of the twentieth century, American educators put together a "Grand Narrative" of Western civilization, that claimed that democracy and freedom began in ancient Greece, suffered a setback with that civilization's fall, and then re-evolved in later times, reaching its height in twentieth century America. However, during the 1960s, and later, Western Civilization came under attack by a liberal elite that sees it not as a glorious march towards freedom, but a disgusting trail of racist, sexist (and so forth) crimes against humanity.

Dr. Gress shows how the West evolved, from ancient Rome right to the end of the twentieth century, and how the idea of the West evolved right along side of it. He shows what it is, what it is not, and how historians from all sides of the argument have gotten it wrong. This book is magisterial in its reach, which admittedly does mean that it is somewhat long and drawn out. For all that, though, this book is absolutely fascinating, and it gives the reader an excellent understanding of the West, where it came from, and (quite possibly) where it's going. I recommend this book to all serious thinkers.

Rating:
Summary: Triumphial Germanism
Review: This challenging and absorbing book asserts that western concepts of freedom derived not from the Greeks and Romans but the Germans. The author makes his point well, but it is nonetheless true that people in the Middle Ages would have found such an argument somewhere between amusing and absolutely bizarre. Nonetheless, this book is essential reading for those of us who are still trying to define "the West."

Rating:
Summary: A Different Approach to History
Review: Well, what to say on a book that dwells on western philosophy from the Greeks to post-modernism and universalism of the 1990s. Dry stuff, but I found this book very helpful to me and timely. With the end of the Cold War and the closing of the 1990s, I felt a sense of the question "what is western identity" as David Gress explores in this book.

First, I didn't have much background in Western Civ or Greek Mythology or about the Romans; as I did not take these types of classes in school. I was an engineering student. But, this is the point of Gress's book. Our society was filled with "The Grand Narrative" of the wonders of Western Civilization as it came to us Americans from the Greeks and the Romans. I mean there were always allusions to it from TV, commericials, movies, teachers, ministers, news commentators and etcetera.

The Grand Narrative permeated our society so much without us realizing where it came from. Gress does an excellent job explaining it came from the minds of two professors at Columiba College in the 1920s and more specifically from a set of books published by the Encyclopedia Brittanica company out of Chicago called the "The Great Books of the Western World."

He, of course, goes much further and traces it throughout history to many of the philosophers out of Germany during the Enlightment and the Sceptical Enlightment. An unique feature of his book is the emphasis on the Germanic freedoms. I never realized we owed so much to the Germanic tribes that dominated the central European forests. I do wonder if this ignorance of the German contribution is from a nationalistic point of view because we are a nation of English Founding Fathers and the fact we fought a vicious war against the German nation{twice}.

There may be controversies from Gress' book and I'm sure many an academic can argue the philosophy of all the great thinkers mentioned in the book; but, as a new entrant to this field of western philosophy, I really appreciated the book. If anything, I will now be more critical and think more about all these great philosophers I look forward to reading.

Conclusion: Consider the book Plato to Nato a good survey of the whole field of western philosophy from a modern current view of the world--a world after the 1968 anti-narrative revolt and Vietnam; a world after the 80s and 90s multiculturism and political correctness on campuses; and the world after the decline and fall of the Soviet Empire in 1991.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Intellectual and Philosophical History of the West
Review: ~From Plato To Nato : The Idea Of The West And Its Opponents~
tackles a most complex and ambigious subject, the Idea of the West. Though Danish author David Gress offers a sweeping overview and defense of the both the "Western Idea and a "Western Identity." The West has been under attack for last century by universalism, multiculturalism, nihilism, relativism and cultural Marxism. In the 1960s, the cultural Marxism of Gramsci's "long march," which seeks to take over Western institutions and transform their Western character into something altogether different, began to make an aggressive march forward. The West is beseiged from within. Gress chronicles the Idea of the West and its opponents in this remarkable intellectual and philosophical history.

Gress' chapter on Germanic Freedom and the Old Western Synthesis breaks with the New Liberal interpretation, which sees "an imaginary direct line connecting the modern West to the ancient Greeks... in which everything in between formed an orderly sequence culminating in liberal modernity. This version descended from the romantic and nineteenth-century cult of Greece and misunderstood both the Greeks and the West. It creating an idealized vision of Greece seen through the lens of a West defined as the heir of that idealized Greece." Historians like Will Durant play a role in shaping this myth. The intervening history is sometimes treated as the dark ages, an aberration or a period of disenlightenment. Two World Wars with Germany as the aggressor helped reinforce this progressive myth of Hellenic enlightenment. Gress challenges this absurd school of historical interpretation and shows how the West is a unique culmination of Roman, Christian and Germanic culture. Thus, modern Western concepts to freedom are very much indebted to Germanic influence more so than classical Greek influence. Two Germanic tribes, namely the Angles and Saxons, brought the Germanic culture and its concepts of freedom to the front. One lingering question emerges about the idea of the West? Is it merely an abstract proposition of human liberty or community? Is there something more substantive that defines the West like the interplay of its vibrant cultures with Christianity?

Gress offers an astute analysis of the cultural crisis beseiging the West. First, in the twentieth-century, the West was overwhelmed with totalitarian threats, which Gress covers in the chapter entitled 'The Totalitarian Trap.' Secondly, the West is under attack for elitism and exclusivism by post-modernism, nihilism and relativism. Thirdly, in the aftermath of that crisis, a new secular universalism has emerged which seeks to supplant the West and create an altogether new civilization. The final chapters 'Battle in the Heartland' and 'The Failure of Universalism' draw the book to a fitting conclusion defending the Idea of the West. Gress offers a break from social scientists like Francis Fukuyama and Samuel Huntington that confuse Westernization and Universalization. "Universalism," notes Gress, "never solved its fundamental dilemma of being both a Western idea - the idea that Westernization was global and irresistible - and an anti-Western idea - the idea that Western identity had fortunately come to an end and been superseded by a lowest common denominator of communications technology, capital markets, free trade and doses of American entertainment."

It is clear that the West is under attack, but it is very much an attack from within. An appropriate response dictates the universalists within the intellectual nomenclature must be displaced by champions of the Western idea. The West can export "cultural capital," to borrow a concept from Thomas Sowell, but one is gravely mistaken to think it tenable or desirable to 'Westernize' the whole world. Moreover, efforts to supposedly 'Westernize' the world may really be an exercise to 'Dewesternize' the West. The 'West' will itself die in the process of trying to universalize itself and an altogether different civilization will emerge. The West will only die if good men fall into a spirit of resignation and declare it inevitable.

Gress gives amazing clarity at discussing history, philosophy and the developments in the West. He defends the West with a trenchent pen. This is an erudite piece of scholarship. I also recommend Russell Kirk's The Roots of American Order.