The Colonizer's Model of the World

Geographical Diffusionism and Eurocentric History

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by J. M. Blaut

Guilford Press

Due/Published October 1993, 246 pages, paper

ISBN 0898623480

The Colonizer's Model of the World challenges one of the most pervasive and powerful beliefs of our time concerning world history and world geography. This is the doctrine of European diffusionism, the belief that the rise of Europe to modernity and world dominance is due to some unique European quality of race, environment, culture, mind, or spirit, and that progress for the rest of the world results from the diffusion of European civilization. J. M. Blaut persuasively argues that this doctrine is not grounded in the facts of history and geography, but in the ideology of colonialism. It is the world model that Europeans constructed to explain, justify, and assist their colonial expansion. This highly readable, illuminating volume will challenge and inform a broad audience that includes general readers. Disputing fundamental ideas in geography, history, anthropology, and the humanities, it is essential reading for professors and students in these fields.