The West

The History of an Idea

Georgios Varouxakis

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Hardback

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English

Princeton University Pres
01 October 2025

History; European history; Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900; 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000; Social & cultural history; Political science & theory

A comprehensive intellectual history of the idea of the West

How did ""the West"" come to be used as a collective self-designation signaling political and cultural commonality? When did ""Westerners"" begin to refer to themselves in this way? Was the idea handed down from the ancient Greeks, or coined by nineteenth-century imperialists? Neither, writes Georgios Varouxakis in The West, his ambitious and fascinating genealogy of the idea. ""The West"" was not used by Plato, Cicero, Locke, Mill, or other canonized figures of what we today call the Western tradition. It was not first wielded by empire-builders. It gradually emerged as of the 1820s and was then, Varouxakis shows, decisively promoted in the 1840s by the French philosopher Auguste Comte (whose political project, incidentally, was passionately anti-imperialist). The need for the use of the term ""the West"" emerged to avoid the confusing or unwanted consequences of the use of ""Europe."" The two overlapped, but were not identical, with the West used to differentiate from certain ""others"" within Europe as well as to include the Americas.

After examining the origins, Varouxakis traces the many and often astonishingly surprising changes in the ways in which the West has been understood, and the different intentions and consequences related to a series of these contested definitions. While other theories of the West consider only particular aspects of the concept and its history (if only in order to take aim at its reputation), Varouxakis's analysis offers a comprehensive account that reaches to the present day, exploring the multiplicity of current, and not least, prospective future meanings. He concludes with an examination of how, since 2022, definitions and membership of the West have been reworked to consider Ukraine, as the evolution and redefinitions continue.

By: Georgios Varouxakis
Imprint: Princeton University Pres
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 155mm,
ISBN: 9780691177182
ISBN 10: 069117718X
Pages: 512
Publication Date: 01 October 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Georgios Varouxakis is professor of the history of political thought in the School of History at Queen Mary University of London and Codirector of the Centre for the Study of the History of Political Thought. He is the author of Mill on Nationality, Victorian Political Thought on France and the French, and Liberty Abroad: J. S. Mill on International Relations and the coauthor of Contemporary France.

Reviews for The West: The History of an Idea

""The West is a monumental achievement of scholarship. Its chief contribution is its decentering of imperial and racial paradigms, which have become politicized and turned into stale orthodoxies that have led to distortions in historical understanding.""---Max Skjönsberg, Law & Liberty ""A seriously impressive piece of intellectual history.""---Nick Spencer, The Spectator ""This book will serve as a salutary reminder of how recent our ideas about the ancient past can really be and how deceptively complex are the ties that bind us with it.""---Mark Mazower, Financial Times ""Much of the story Varouxakis tell will be new, even to other historians. His book …. is not only deeply researched and clearly written, but also highly original.""---Daniel Johnson, The Critic