The West is on everyone's lips: it is defended, celebrated, hated. But how and why did it emerge? And whose idea is it? This book is about representations of the West. Drawing on sources from across the world - from Russia to Japan, Iran to Britain - it argues that the West is not merely a Western idea but something that many people around the world have long been creating and stereotyping. The Idea of the West looks at how the great political and ethnic forces of the last century defined themselves in relation to the West, addresses how Soviet communism, 'Asian spirituality', 'Asian values' and radical Islamism used and deployed images of the West. Both topical and wide-ranging, it offers an accessible but provocative portrait of a fascinating subject and it charts the complex relationship between whiteness and the West.

Alastair Bonnett is Professor of Social Geography in the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University, UK. His other books include, The Idea of the West: Culture, Politics and History, White Identities: International and Historical Perspectives, Anti-racism and Radicalism, Anti-racism and Representation.
ALASTAIR BONNETT is Professor of Social Geography at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

INTRODUCTION
The West: Ancient and Modern
Knowing the West
Geography and the World
Chapters in a Global History
FROM WHITE TO WESTERN: 'RACIAL DECLINE' AND THE IDEA OF THE WEST IN BRITAIN, 1890-1930
Introduction
White Decay
The West's West: Beginnings
The Western Path Out of White Crisis
Conclusions
COMMUNISTS LIKE US: THE IDEA OF THE WEST IN THE SOVIET UNION
Introduction
The West Versus Communism
Russia's West
The Revolutionary West
The Western Enemy
The 'Kidnapped West' and Russia's 'Return'
Conclusions
GOOD-BYE ASIA: THE WESTERNISERS WEST, FUKUZAWA AND GOKALP
Introduction
The Uses of the West
Fukuzawa Yukichi: Occidentalism and Nationalism in Japan
Ziya Gokalp: Finding Turkey, Inventing the West
Conclusions
SOULLESS OCCIDENT
SPIRITUAL ASIA: TAGORE'S WEST
Introduction
Asia is One: The West as Spiritual Void
Who Wants to be Asian?: The Failure of Tagore's Mission to the East
Asian Spirituality: Transcending the West
Conclusions: Tagore and Modernity
FROM SOULLESS TO SLACKER: THE IDEA OF THE WEST FROM PAN-ASIANISM TO ASIAN VALUES
Introduction: Forget Tagore
Pan-Asianism: Eastern Redemption, Western Nationalism
The Slacker West and Asian Values
Conclusions
OCCIDENTAL UTOPIA:THE NEO-LIBERAL WEST
Introduction
Social Democracy: The Unproclaimed West
Westernisation: Victory in Defeat
Neo-liberal Democracy: Western Triumph and Western Blue-print
Conclusions: The Vulnerability of the Neo-liberal Model
WESTERN DYSTOPIA: RADICAL ISLAMISM AND ANTI-WESTERNISM
Introduction
The Clash of Utopias?
The Islamisation of Anti-Westernism
Conclusions: Islamism and Neo-liberal Globalisation
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index.