European Perceptions of Islam and America from Saladin to George W. Bush

This book considers European perceptions of their rivals throughout history from the Islamic civilization between the first Crusade in 1095 and the final Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683 to the United States of America from independence in 1776 until the present and investigates Europe's capacity to lead the world.

"O Brien has done a stunning amount of research and organized it attractively. This book should be both popular and informative." - Jacques Barzun, author of From Dawn to Decadence, 1500 to the Present: 500 Years of Western Cultural History

"A sweeping, erudite, incisive, and pioneering interpretation of European identity formation which demonstrates the profound influence of Islamic civilization (not to mention America) on western Europe. Well written and researched, this book offers a unique challenge to Eurocentrism." - S. M. Ghazanfar, Professor/Chair (Emeritus, 2002) Economics at the University of Idaho

"In this well-written and bold book Peter O Brien has provided a major contribution to World- and European-history by refining our understanding of European identity as it unfolded in the last millennium. While Eurocentrism assumes that the West deemed itself to be superior to all other civilizations at least since 1500, as does non-Eurocentric revisionism for the post-1750 period, O Brien argues that Europe has long been marked by a sense of insecurity and a fragile ego. The narrative is developed through a long-historical examination of Europe s perceptions principally of Islamic civilization as well as the United States. Though situated within the revisionist literature, nevertheless the book s excellent argument should provoke revisionist- as well as Eurocentric- scholars to rethink some of their most fundamental assumptions about Europe and the Rise of the West." - Professor John M. Hobson, University of Sheffield, and author of The Eastern Origins of Western Civilization

"In his vigorous, provocative history of European identity, Peter O'Brien has devised a genuinely new approach and achieved a startling insight: Eurocentrism - ostensibly so self-confident - started in minds intimidated by other, mightier civilizations. Europeans' current diffidence no longer looks like a new response to a dynamic world, but an age-old, essential ingredient of the idea of Europe." - Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, William P. Reynolds Professor of History, University of Notre Dame

PETER O'BRIEN is Professor of Political Science at Trinity University, USA.