On The Eighteenth Century As A Category Of Asian History

Download or read book On the Eighteenth Century as a Category of Asian History written by Leonard Blussé and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-12-05 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The starting point of this volume is the scathing attack, far-reaching in its consequences, launched in 1942 by J.C. van Leur on the views then current on the character and significance of the 18th century as a category in Asian history. His denial of European pre-eminence in Asian waters represented a direct attack on colonial historiography. The essays here derive from an international conference held 50 years later, to assess the impact of van Leur’s work. In part historiographic, in part drawing on new research, they aim to delimit the boundaries of European-Asian interaction, and to provide case studies of what this period actually meant for the history of South and East Aia.