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R. Charles Weller, “'Western Civilization' and World History: White Nationalism and Eurocentrism at the Crossroads,” in 21st-Century Narratives of

World History: Global and Multidisciplinary Perspectives, ed. R. Charles Weller (Basingstoke, England: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018).1

http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319620770 © 2017 – R. Charles Weller

Eurocentric and nationalist interpretations of world history continued to prevail over internationalist-cosmopolitan and globalist-multiculturalist visions and their respective aspirations for world peace in the post-World War II era. This was witnessed most vividly in French, U.S. and other nationalist rejection of UNESCO’s attempts to rewrite both national histories and the overall history of humanity from a ‘multicultural global connections’ point of view in the post-World War II, post-colonial setting. With respect to UNESCO’s world history project, the explicit aim “was to distinguish it from the ethnocentric and especially the Eurocentric world histories of past” in order to overcome ““the obstinacy with which so many representatives of so-called 'European' or 'Western' civilization regard the latter—their own—as the only true civilization.””2 Much the same applied to UNESCO’s efforts to rewrite various national histories from a crosscultural and transnational point of view. As Hunt highlights however, the UNESCO history of France written from this vantage in the 1950s was not published until 2012 due to French nationalist opposition.3 Likewise, the only American historian appointed to write a volume for the UNESCO History of Humanity series, Louis Gottschalk, having finally overcome his own Eurocentric bias, was criticized by not only American counterparts and reviewers, but the “French Sorbonne historian Roland Mousnier” who “objected that this kind of separate-but-equal approach obscured the most significant world development of the period 1300 to 1775 – the rise of the west.”4

And so we come full circle back to the so-called ‘new world histories’, emerging as they did from out of this post-World War II, post-colonialist trend. Like Gottshalk and Stravianos before him, William H. McNeill, one of the chief pioneers and inspirations of the ‘new world history’ movement, himself modeled the transformation called for by shifting his focus across the span of his career from The Rise of the West (1963) to a more nuanced and balanced view of The Human Web: A Bird’s-Eye View of World History (2003).5 Global, multicultural, transnational approaches to world history, and to history in general, were on the rise. But while McNeill and others were embracing this trajectory, others were lamenting and fighting to save The Vanishing West: 1964-2010: The Disappearance of Western Civilization from the American Undergraduate Curriculum.6 They faced major obstacles, however. One of the most formidable was the ongoing equivocation of ‘Western/European Civilization’ with ‘white civilization’ and accompanying charges that ‘Western Civilization’ was inherently racist. Indeed, the Nazi and other fascist-nationalist atrocities had, on top of the nationalist violence of World War I, placed increasing strain upon Eurocentric, nationalist and racist interpretations of both Western and world history (not to mention European, American, Japanese and multiple other national histories). But it would be naïve to suppose that the mere absence of explicit reference to white racist ideas within the continuing narratives of ‘advanced Western civilization’ in the post-World War II, post- colonialist era indicated a complete and genuine break between the two. On this matter, Malcolm X, in stark contrast to Martin Luther King, Jr’s views (see end of chapter one), said:

I've got to point out right here that what I'm saying is not racist. I'm not speaking racism, I'm not condemning all white people. I'm just saying that in the past the white world was in power, and it was. This is history, this is fact. They called it European history, or colonialism. They ruled all the dark world. Now when they were in power and had everything going their way, they didn't call that racism, they called it colonialism.7

Certainly Truman’s executive order to desegregate the U.S. military in 1948, the Brown versus Topeka, Kansas Board of Education decision of the Supreme Court in 1954 (which effectively overturned the 1896 Supreme Court segregationist ruling of ‘separate but equal’), and Johnson’s signing of several Civil Rights and immigration acts between 1964 and 1967 all reflected various measures of sincerity and achieved various levels of practical effect. But the Detroit and Chicago race riots of 1943 and 1968 respectively, the ongoing racist treatment of Carl Brashear and others like him in the military, the need to deploy national guard troops to desegregate public schools and universities in the face of angry white racist mobs, and the countless other instances of white racist opposition to the Black Civil Rights Movement in the 1950-60s all testify to the continuing presence and power of white racist ideas of varying degree within the U.S. Apartheid in South Africa was also alive and well, though coming under greater international scrutiny while experiencing similar domestic protest. Likewise, white nationalism and accompanying expressions of racism8 were by no means dead in Britain or elsewhere in Europe. Robert Young thus begins his study of White Mythologies: Writing History and the West, with a quote from the Algerian French feminist writer Hélène Cixous, who, from her vantage, “saw how the white (French), superior, plutocratic, civilized world founded its power on the repression of populations who had suddenly become ‘invisible’, like proletarians, immigrant workers, minorities who are not the right ‘colour’.”9

Along, therefore, with the growing impact of the Viet Nam War as well as the women’s and gay liberation movements and other similar forces on the rise in the 1950-60s, it was, within the U.S., precisely these lingering, albeit now discreet associations of ‘Western Civilization’ and ‘white civilization’ and their alleged advanced standing in the world which came increasingly under attack in the face of both domestic and international pressures. Professors such as Frederic L. Cheyette at Amherst began to insist, therefore, that, “[d]espite its claim to be universal, …Western Civ in truth was limited and provincial, a history of those who were men, white, Christian, and European.”10 Likewise:

In rejecting the [Western Civ] course, Harvard faculty members, in principle, rejected the historical pre-eminence of Western man. …This breakup of an educational creed coincided with the breakup of the world that inspired it. …the rise of the Third World confronted the United States with an international environment of polycentrism and cultural diversity. Europe was no longer the world. Emerging were other peoples, other histories, a globe of historic diversity beyond the imagination of earlier Westerners, …As educators came to recognize the world in this way, they recognized, at the same time, the poverty of the Western Civ course.

Indeed, Malcolm X, in the same speech cited above, had noted that “as the base of power shifts, what it is doing is bringing an end to what you and I know to have been white supremacy. …the white world, or the Western world, is having its power curtailed.” 11 And with that, the Western Civilization course was phased out in most colleges and universities by the early 1970s.

But the lingering problem of equivocation between ‘Western’ and ‘white civilization’ was not therein resolved. It continued to haunt national debates which arose in the 1980s over Stanford’s Western Civ replacement course now repackaged as ‘Western Culture’. The proposal was first put forward by the Committee on Reform and Renewal of Liberal Education in January 1976. …After a decade of debate however, Stanford American history professor Carl Degler summarized things quite accurately before the faculty senate in 1988, saying: “The principal objections, I gather, are that it is…too narrow in its focus since it fails to include writings from cultures outside the West, or by persons who are not white males.” But however covertly it may have been shrouded in more politically correct language, Degler himself, in fact, exemplified this dilemma. In opposition to the newly proposed replacement course on ‘Culture, Ideas, Values’ (CIV), he immediately went on to assert:

As a historian of the United States I would be the last person to deny the ethnic, racial, and cultural complexity of American society. But, from the same perspective, I find it puzzling, if not troubling, to learn that some of the dominant and influential ideas in modern America are to be seen in CIV as originating outside the West. Few historians of the United States believe that the culture of this country has been seriously influenced by ideas from Africa, China, Japan, or indigenous North America, to name the more prominent non-Western sources of the present population of the United States.12

Such a view leaves little other than white Americans to serve as the sole sources for “the dominant and influential ideas in modern America.” And this was precisely the complaint of Bill King, President of Stanford’s Black Student Union, who raised the original objection to the ‘Western Culture’ course. He suggested instead courses which would make clear “that they [the white Europeans] were just as indebted to my [black] ancestors as they were to their own.” 13 In this, King was in essential agreement with Malcolm X, who said: “once you see that the condition that we're in is directly related to our lack of knowledge concerning the history of the Black man, only then can you realize the importance of knowing something about the history of the Black man.” 14 …Meanwhile, associate professor of English Barbara Gelpi believed the aim should be “laying bare the racist and sexist assumptions within the very foundations of Western culture.”15 …

In the midst of it all, William J. Bennett, appointed chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, made a national issue of the Stanford case. He put together a ‘study group’ made up of 31 scholars, most of whom were white,16 to inquire into “the State of Learning in the Humanities in Higher Education.” In 1984 he thus published To Reclaim a Legacy: A Report on the Humanities in Higher Education in which he made the following impassioned plea:

We are a part and a product of Western civilization. That our society was founded upon such principles as justice, liberty, government with the consent of the governed, and equality under the law is the result of ideas descended directly from great epochs of Western civilization – Enlightenment England and France, Renaissance Florence, and Periclean Athens. These ideas…are the glue that binds our pluralistic nation. The fact that we as Americans – whether black or white, Asian or Hispanic, rich or poor – share these beliefs aligns us with other cultures of the Western tradition. It is not ethnocentric or chauvinistic to acknowledge this. No student citizen of our civilization should be denied access to the best that tradition has to offer.

Ours is not, of course, the only great cultural tradition the world has seen. There are others, and we should expect an educated person to be familiar with them because they have produced art, literature, and thought that are compelling monuments to the human spirit and because they have made significant contributions to our history. Those who know nothing of these other traditions can neither appreciate the uniqueness of their own nor understand how their own fits with the larger world. They are less able to understand the world in which they live. The college curriculum must take the non-Western world into account, not out of political expediency or to appease interest groups, but out of respect for its importance in human history. But the core of the American college curriculum – its heart and soul – should be the civilization of the West, source of the most powerful and persuasive influences on America and its people.17

The report thus reflected an appreciable measure of balance, especially in its genuine “respect” for “the non-Western world” and its “significant contributions to our [world’s] history.” Like Degler, the report even acknowledged “our pluralistic nation…black or white, Asian or Hispanic, rich or poor.” But it nowhere affirmed any contribution on the part of such peoples to “the Western tradition.” Indeed, the author of the report, Bennett, had coauthored a book in 1979 entitled Counting by Race which spoke out against Affirmative Action, i.e. against foundational Civil Rights legislation.18 Bennett’s racially-colored views also found expression elsewhere over the years, as seen for example in his genocidal comment in 2006 that "you could abort every black baby in this country, and your crime rate would go down." He was condemned for his “racial” statement by both President Bush and New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.19

Allan Bloom took up the matter in his 1987 best-seller, The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students. There he mocked the idea that “Black students are second-class…because they are being forced to imitate white culture,” suggesting that “[r]elativism and Marxism made some of this claim believable.” He implied instead that it was “because they are academically poor.”20 He likewise “wrote a letter to the Wall Street Journal editor in 1989,” making “a rigorous if eccentric case for a classic liberal education rooted in the Western canon – in which he argued that the Stanford revisions were a travesty.”21

Following closely behind, the February 1988 U.S. edition of Newsweek magazine carried an article by David Gates and Tony Clifton titled “Say Goodnight, Socrates: Stanford University and the decline of the West,”22 while Bernard Knox published The Oldest Dead White European Males and Other Reflections on the Classics several years later in 1993. There he argued that

the Greeks and the heritage they have handed down to our Western Civilization…is today a controversial theme, as the deliberately provocative title of the first essay [“Homer is Dead”] suggests. Advocates of multiculturalism and militant feminists, among others, have denounced the traditional canon of literature that has so long served as the educational base for Western societies, repudiating it as not only as sexist and racist but even as an instrument of ideological Gleichschaltung [standardized authoritarianism] used by a ruling class to impose conformity.23

David Sacks and Peter Thiel – the latter a former speech writer for William J. Bennett – followed several years later in 1996 by publishing The Diversity Myth: ‘Multiculturalism’ and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford. The title was slightly revised and broadened for the paperback edition appearing in 1998 as The Diversity Myth: ‘Multiculturalism’ and Political Intolerance on Campus. Both

were graduates of Stanford now working together at a conservative think-tank, the Independent Institute, in Oakland, California. Chapter one, “The West Rejected,” started off with an italicized quote from columnist Charles Krauthammer: “First, Stanford capitulated to separatist know-nothings and abandoned its “Western Civilization” course because of [the course’s] bias toward white males (you know: narrow-minded ethnics like Socrates, Jesus, and Jefferson).” In polemical overstatement of the case, they went on to portray the curriculum change at Stanford as

an unqualified denunciation of the West. …It referred not just to a single class at Stanford, but to the West itself—to its history and achievements, to its institutions of free-market capitalism and constitutional democracy, to Christianity and Judaism, to the complex of values and judgments that help shape who we are.24

In defense of classical Western Civilization, they argued against emerging ideas of ‘multiculturalism’ and ‘diversity’, condemning them as neo-liberal covers for anti-right wing political intolerance.

In 1997, Gary Nash, Charlotte Crabtree and Ross Dunn intervened in the debate with History on Trial: Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past. They advocated in defense of multiculturalism and diversity, decrying, in one of their chapters, what they considered to be a “Right-Wing Assault” in the course of attempting to set national history standards. All of them had participated in a two-year effort (1992-94) to establish recommended standards, only to watch the U.S. Senate vote in early 1995 to “condemn” them.25

Meanwhile, two other graduates of Stanford, Victor Davis Hanson and John Heath, added their voice to the debate in 1998 with a book entitled Who Killed Homer? The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom. From their vantage on things,

every American should care. The demise of classics means more than the implosion of an inbred academic discipline, more than the disappearance of one more bookosaurus here and there. For chained to this sinking academic bureaucracy called classics are the ideas, the values, the vision of classical Greece and Rome. These are the ideas and values that have shaped and defined Western civilization, a vision of life that has ironically come under increasing attack here in the elite universities of the West just as its mutated form is metastasizing throughout the globe.26

But the U.S. was not the only place where Eurocentric visions of the preeminence of ‘Western civilization’ continued to vie for interpretational merit while retaining implicit or, in more extreme form, explicit association with ‘white civilization’. The British historian J. M. Roberts maintained a classic ‘Western Civ plus’ approach to his History of the World without essential revision from 1976 down to his death in 2003. There he argued that, “as a way out of their troubles,” peoples everywhere across the world “look…to the West” as “the master-source of the modern world.” Surely a historian of the caliber of Roberts must have been aware just how closely his latter reference resembled historically white supremacist ideas of a ‘master race’. Whatever the case, he was clear in asserting that “no other tradition has shown the same vigour and attractiveness in alien settings as the European: it has no competitors as a world shaper.” Against this background, he contends, in support of his thesis, that “[o]ne reason why so many black men clamour vociferously against the white-dominated societies they live in is” not because they have been so

oppressed and violated, but “that they in fact wish to realize the ideals of human rights and dignity evolved by European civilization.” Not only does his choice of descriptive language here – “clamour vociferously” – cast “black men” in less than a positive light. “European civilization” is, in his eyes, exclusively associated with and “evolved by” the ‘white societies’ which ‘dominate’ them. Indeed, Roberts’ singling out of “black men” here in juxtaposition to white Europeans indicates that he views them, within the larger context of his argument, as one of the “alien settings” (cf. African heritage as non-European) in which his white-dominated European tradition serves to provide them “a way out of their troubles,” namely the “troubles” they “clamour vociferously” about.27

The Post-Cold War and Post-911 Turn

Notwithstanding ebbs and flows as well as variation across regions, opposition to racism, ethnocentrism and nationalism continued to mount from World War II down to 9/11, at least within the Western world. This environment, enhanced by the end of the Cold War – i.e. a sudden surge of globalization across a vast international space of formerly closed boundaries – as well as the crumbling of Apartheid all favored ‘neo-liberal’ ideas of ‘pluralism’, ‘multiculturalism’, ‘diversity’ and ‘globalism’. 9/11 significantly reversed that trend. While Middle Easterners and Muslims became the primary targets of anti-foreign, anti-pluralist sentiment, long-standing disgruntlement with increasing cultural relativism and the alleged breakdown of Western values in an ostensibly post- racist, post-colonialist world revitalized neo-conservative sentiment. 28 Within this environment, ‘multiculturalism’, already long resisted at many turns since its rise in the mid-20th century, has been increasingly challenged, even declared a ‘crisis’ reflecting the alleged failure of neo-liberal policy. Anti-immigration rhetoric has garnered growing support while denials of ‘race’ as a valid construct and the accompanying shift to a focus on ‘culture’ have served to cover over resurgent racist discourse. ‘Displaced’ white Euro-American societies have reasserted their need to protect and defend themselves and their ‘Western civilization’ via increasing political as well as cultural ‘securitization’. These developments constitute, as Alana Lentin and Gavan Titley title their edited volume, Crises of Multiculturalism: Racism in a Neoliberal Age.29 Within the U.S. in particular, the Obama presidency provoked white racist reaction while the recent campaign and election of Donald Trump was both a product of and, in the eyes of many who elected him, a significant endorsement of such reactionary trends. At the far right, white nationalist and ‘alt-right’ leaders espousing anti-multiculturalist rhetoric supported Trump for his hardline stance on immigration and refugees, particularly in connection to Mexicans and Muslims.30

Indeed, Jay Reeves noted in June 2016 how “Klan leaders said they feel that U.S. politics are going their way, as a nationalist, us-against-them mentality deepens across the nation. Stopping or limiting immigration – a desire of the Klan dating back to the 1920s – is more of a cause than ever.”31 Connected to but going beyond controversies over immigration, it was no coincidence that, following the U.S. presidential election in November 2016, the “'Trump effect' led to [a] hate crime surge.” This accompanied graffiti in one case painted on a wall displaying the swastika sign amid the declaration “Make America White Again.”32 The Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan claim divine authority in their shared racist vision “to help restore America to a White Christian nation.”33 A number of other KKK groups across Europe and North America espouse similar agendas, including the Imperial Knights of the UK Church of the KKK and the European White Knights of the Burning

Cross. Likewise, White Aryan Resistance headed by Tom Metzger espouses “the benefits of racial separation, highlighting the dangers of multiculturalism and promoting racial identity and a territorial imperative.”34 The latter phrase is tied closely to the “Northwest Territorial Imperative” promoted by Aryan Nations founded in the early 1970s from their former compound in Hayden Lake, Idaho.35

Leonard Zeskind has provided one of the most detailed studies to-date of the history behind this phenomenon in Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream (2009). In it he ties together neo-Nazi skinheads, Holocaust deniers, Christian Identity churches, the renewal of the Ku Klux Klan, and more. He identifies opposition to ‘foreign’ (i.e. non- white) immigration as a primary aim of all these organizations in the post-Cold War era, with accompanying concern over whites losing their majority status in the face of globalizing trends.36 Earlier in a 2005 documentary entitled White Terror, Daniel Schweizer traced the rise of white “extremists' networks in Europe, North America and Russia” who promoted, among other things, ideas of “segregation” and anti-immigration. Some of them also promoted educational agendas which included “training our young people in the basic skills of civilized life and giving them pride in their racial, cultural, and national heritage.” This was the vision of the National Alliance which holds that “[a]ny White person” but “no person with a non-White spouse or a non-White dependent…may be a member.”37 The close link between (what is presumably Western Euro-American) civilization and racial pride should be noted. Much like the white racist rhetoric of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, these various groups consistently reference not only blacks and Muslims, but Jews and Asians.38

Against this backdrop, Ricardo Duchesne, an associate professor of sociology at the University of New Brunswick in Canada, has taken up the cause of “defending the rise of western culture against its multicultural critics.” 39 He thus invested ten years of research into his magnum opus on The Uniqueness of Western Civilization (2011) with the primary aim of countering “the multicultural effort to ‘provincialize’ the history of Western civilization.” 40 In a 2005 contribution on “Centres and Margins: the Fall of Universal World History and the Rise of Multicultural World History,” Duchesne explained that

this emphasis on the interactions of communities and cultures in the past has produced indispensable insights about the worldwide impact of not only modern but premodern forces and movements. The trend toward a more even-handed evaluation of non-European voices and the history of women and minority groups also deserves to be celebrated. …But it is my view that a narrow-minded, anti- Western ideology has taken hold of much of world history writing in recent decades, a new orthodoxy…[which]…encourages students to place the intellectual achievements of all cultures on the same moral and rational level, and discourages the so-called ‘triumphalist’ idea that Western civilization has made the major contributions to the ideals of freedom, democracy and reason. …This discursive shift away from the great themes of freedom and rationality which students learned from traditional Western Civ courses and which world historians still accepted in the 1960s was perhaps the most important event in twentieth-century historiography.41

Under attack in all Duchesne’s works were figures such as Franz Boaz and Immanuel Wallerstein as well as William H. McNeill, “Ross Dunn, Jerry Bentley, Patrick Manning, David Christian and others who took over the cause of world history in the 1980s.” For Duchesne, “the main question” of history remained “’why the great accomplishments in the sciences and arts have

been overwhelmingly European.’” This, for him, constituted a “higher cultural legacy” in comparison with all other cultures and civilizations within the world historical record. Nevermind that he, by his own confession, “risked making arguments about areas of history I know little about,” ‘the uniqueness of the West’ was to be defended at all costs.42

Part of this defense, it turns out, includes an anti-immigration stance which bears uncanny resemblance to white nationalist and racist anti-immigration laws of the interwar period aimed at maintaining a white majority, such as those enacted by the U.S. between 1880-1965 (see above). Indeed, along with his publication and teaching work, Duchesne is co-founder of the Council of European Canadians (CEC). In its vision statement, the group declares that it “oppose[s] all efforts to deny or weaken the European character of Canada,” that “Canada should remain majority, not exclusively, European in its ethnic composition and cultural character” because “Canada is a nation created by individuals with an Anglo/French/European heritage, not by individuals from diverse races and cultures.”43 For Duchesne, therefore, "[t]he incoming in Vancouver of Asians and Chinese was too fast, too quick. …within a matter of a few years, a very British city, a beautiful British city, took on a strongly Asian character." His latter comments sparked national controversy. In spite of Duchesne being condemned by a number of public officials and university colleagues for racism, his university defended his right to ‘freedom of speech’.44 Meanwhile, his own brother made clear that

[a]s a member of the Duchesne family, I totally repudiate my brother’s white supremacist crypto- Nazi positions. We are a family of Puerto Rican, Caribbean heritage. Our father is Puerto Rican, our grandfather was of mixed Afro-Puerto Rican and French descent, our mother was a British citizen of Anglo-Indian descent, born in Calcuta. Ricky was born and raised in Puerto Rico with us. We are proud of our cosmopolitan, plural ethnic heritage. …We cannot explain our brother’s absurd racist politics except as a form of the typical self-hatred or wannabe White anxiety provoked by colonial prejudice suffered by Puerto Ricans who have been historically racialized by U.S. colonialism.45

Duchesne became a hero, however, to white nationalist and racist groups sharing his commitment to protect and defend predominantly white Western civilization. Thus Kevin MacDonald, one of the founders of The Occidental Observer (TOO), which publishes “original content touching on the themes of white identity, white interests, and the culture of the West,”46 published an article in another white nationalist mouthpiece, The Daily Stormer, entitled: “Council of European Canadians: An Excellent Website in Defense of the [White] People and Culture of the West.” Therein he noted that Duchesne and his work were “well-known to TOO readers.” He understood Duchesne to promote “ethnic homogeneity within Western societies” as “a key antecedent for Western endorsement of moral universalism and individual rights,” thus opposing “the current push for multiculturalism” as “a disaster for European Canadians.”47

A number of similar groups have arisen in response to the multicultural surge of ‘globalization’. In addressing the issue of “Immigration and the Demographic Transformation,” American Renaissance, founded in 1990, claims that “[t]he single greatest threat facing whites is mass immigration of non-whites into white homelands. If it continues, …[t]he culture of the West will not survive the disappearance of the [white] people who created it.” Their “Philosophy of Race Realism” holds that “it is entirely normal for whites (or for people of any other race) to want to be the majority race in their own homeland. If whites permit themselves to become a minority population, they will lose their civilization, their heritage, and even their existence as a distinct

people.” The language here echoes not only that of the KKK, but Madison Grant, The Passing of the Great Race: The Racial Basis of European History (1916). Accordingly, Christopher De La Viña, in an American Renaissance article titled “White Man: Why Are You Giving Away Your Country?” (2015), recounted how

[a]s a child in public schools and now as a graduate student in history, I have learned one thing to be true about the United States: It is a white country. The founders were white, white men established its core principles and political system, and white men and women built the nation into what it is today. …America has always been a white country and always should be.48

From the opposite angle, one of their founders and chief spokespersons, Jared Taylor, in a piece entitled “Africa in Our Midst” (under the topic of “Crime and Disorder”), argues that “[w]hen blacks are left entirely to their own devices, Western Civilization—any kind of civilization—disappears.” Blacks thus remain ‘uncivilized’, presumably ‘primitive’ and ‘barbaric’, in his view.49

The New Moderate, in discussing the issue of “White People,” shares the view that “[w]hite people of European stock have a right to look after their interests, especially in light of current demographic trends in the U.S. and Western Europe.” They lamented, however, that “[u]nfortunately, virtually every ‘white rights’ movement has been laden with racism.” While ostensibly disavowing such a racist view themselves, they summarized the perspective of what they called “Righty” in terms very similar to those described by De La Viña, namely that

[w]hite people created Western Civilization and all its wonders. We built everything of note from the Parthenon to the personal computer. We explored the world from top to bottom, delivered most of it from ignorance and savagery, spread the Gospel, advanced the frontiers of science, discovered cures for dreaded diseases, and founded numerous great nations, including, of course, the United States. White people were designed by nature to rule.”50

Preserving Western Civilization was a group founded in the mid-2000s by Michael Hart because “our glorious Western civilization is under assault from many directions.” The three main threats identified are: “the massive influx to the United States and Europe of Third-World immigrants who do not share our fundamental political and cultural values,” “the threat from Islam, a militant ideology that is hostile to our society and, in principle, committed to destroying it,” and “the persistent disappointing performance of blacks (which many whites mistakenly blame on themselves),” so that “many whites have guilt feelings that undermine Western morale and deter us from dealing sensibly with the other threats.” 51 With such “threats” in view, Hart, a Ph.D. in astronomy, has published several white supremacist books, including Understanding Human History (2009) and Restoring America (2015).52 The group does not seem to be very active, however, as its last conference appears to have been in 2009 when the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reported that about 70 “Racists Gather[ed] in Maryland to ‘Preserve’ Western Civilization.” Speakers at the time included “Patricia Richardson, a member of the far-right British National Party (BNP), whose leader, Nick Griffin, has traveled to the United States to speak at a conference convened by American Renaissance. Richardson spoke about the ‘Colonization of Britain,’ which focused on Muslim immigration to that country.” Others were Steve Farron, formerly a professor of Classics at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa; Lino Graglia, a professor of law at the University of Texas in Austin; Henry Harpending, an anthropologist at the University of Utah; and

“J. Philippe Rushton, a Canadian professor of psychology, who has, for many years, been one of the primary voices arguing that races differ biologically in intelligence.” Another speaker, Peter Brimelow, founder of the white nationalist VDare which published Hart’s Restoring America, “argued that the influx of ‘non-traditional’ immigration is a problem all over the Western world and that the loss of control over the country by ‘white Protestants’ will mean a collapse of the American political system.” The solution, he urged, was “that whites respond by creating an explicitly white nationalist political party.” Richard Spencer was not mentioned, though he is president of the National Policy Institute as well as Washington Summit Publishers, both of which promote white nationalist views, including the publication of Hart’s book Restoring America.53 The ADL article did, however, reference “white supremacists on forums like Stormfront and the Vanguard News Network” in connection with the conference and its speakers.54

Students for Western Civilization is “based out of Toronto and is composed primarily of students and alumni of Toronto universities,” but invites all “young people across North America” to join them. According to their mission statement, the goals of the organization include: “To organize for and advance the interests of Western peoples” and “To promote and celebrate Western Civilisation.” In order to accomplish these goals, they urge that “York [University] Needs a White Students Union!” This, they insist, “would serve to promote and celebrate the culture of Western Civilisation” and “advance the political interests of Western peoples.”55

Youth for Western Civilization was a trans-Atlantic student organization seeking to influence college and university campuses across the Western world. Their Facebook page has been removed and they appear to have no website presence any longer. 56 But their influence has, as intended, extended beyond campuses into political realms. Thus in October 2016, during Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, David Neiwert reported how “Montana Republicans Warmly Embrace a White Nationalist's Legislative Candidacy.” Neiwert is referring to Taylor Rose, who “first came to enter the movement in 2011 when his activities on behalf of the white nationalist Youth for Western Civilization were reported by the Center for New Community.”57 Rose’s views were well-known to Montana Republicans since he had authored a book in 2012 on the Return of the Right: How the Political Right Is Taking Back Western Civilization. The heart of the book aims to expose and counter a “very aggressive and dedicated” neo-liberal utopian “vision to destroy the nation-state, eliminate religion, [and] break down all defined barriers in society” so as “to eliminate western civilization from the face of the earth in the attempt to institute a radical, multicultural, New World Order agenda.” It is a “radical Leftist, post-modern philosophy” – elsewhere called “Fabian Socialism” – “emanating from Hegelian and Marxist belief systems.” The three key American presidential figures who have promoted this leftist downfall of ‘Western Civilization’ are Woodrow Roosevelt and his internationalist League of Nations, Franklin Roosevelt and his socialist New Deal, and Barack Obama. This “crisis” is “the great expression of the consequences of the abandonment of traditionalist, Christian, and Enlightenment principles being applied in the West.” He thus calls for a return to “the traditional institutions of the Western Christian society: God/church, family and country.” His vision for “all members…working together for the common interest of the nation, not the ‘global community’” includes the “[r]ejection of multiculturalism,” the concerted effort to “[s]top the Islamization of the Western world,” and “[f]ighting for the defense of Western traditions and cultural identity.” With regard to the latter, “Westerners must never be afraid to use the terms of ‘miracle’

and ‘exceptionalism’ in describing their homelands,” “understanding their own unique place in the history of the world.” This is all a “noble crusade” in which “[c]onservatives of the Western Civilization unite together...without apology and without fear.” It is a fight against “one world humanist[s]” who establish their vision upon “the corpses of…national and ethnic identity.” 58 In summing things up at the end of his first chapter in a paragraph repeated on the backcover, Rose warns that “Europe is the cradle of Western Civilization. …Europe’s last hope lies in a renaissance of Christianity and a revival of national and ethnic pride to counter the determined will of fanatics of Anatolia, Mesopotamia and Arabia and the suicidal notions of internationalist ideologues.” While Rose thus avoids the terms ‘white’ and ‘race’, his implicit references couched in terms of “ethnic pride” in “ethnic identity,” tied as they are to political power in the nation-state, are clear. As a graduate of Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, Rose illustrates the way in which neo-conservative Christianity retains elements of old ‘WASP’ (‘White Anglo-Saxon Protestant’) notions which also intersect with the white supremacist Christian Identity movement and their Euro-white nationalist revival of ‘Western Civilization’.59

Rose, however, was not the only one during the Trump campaign who voiced Republican support for such a vision. As Nick Visser reported in an article titled "A GOP Congressman Just Made an Argument for White Supremacy on Live TV," “Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) made an outrageous statement about the contributions of Western civilization - i.e., the one crafted primarily by white people - over ‘any other subgroup’ during an appearance…on MSNBC.”60 Daniel Victor, writing for the New York Times, reported the incident in an article titled: “What, Congressman Steve King Asks, Have Nonwhites Done for Civilization?”61 King’s assertion in July 2016 sparked national, even international debate over the entire question of race and civilization within Western and world history.

The rise of such white nationalist and racist groups vocally advocating a necessary, vital association between ‘Western’ and ‘white civilization’ with accompanying arguments for their supremacy in world history coincides with a recent resurgent trend among Western academic historians that John Pincince has identified as an “exceptionalist history of the ‘West’” coupled with “a declinist narrative of a once triumphant Western civilization.”62 Among these, Pincince treats two examples: a 2011 study by four scholars – all part of the core leadership of the National Association of Scholars (NAS), all of whom happen to be white63 – entitled The Vanishing West: 1964-2010: The Disappearance of Western Civilization from the American Undergraduate Curriculum, and Niall Ferguson, Civilization: The West and the Rest (2011).64 Going directly to the sources themselves, The Vanishing West counsels that “to revive the study of Western Civilization” (v) “would require synthesizing new scholarship and taking into account the themes of globalization and the claims of ‘world history’” (21), “including knowledge of the West’s interactions with other civilizations and cultures” (vi). But those interactions are viewed, much as in J.M. Roberts historiographical interpretation (see above), as “their civilization’s great story, its triumphs, its vicissitudes, and its singular role in transforming the human condition,” “a historical overview of the Western ascent toward freedom, scientific and technology mastery, and world power” (v-vi). In a word, to study Western Civilization is to study “the rise of the West” (v). For those who oppose this approach, “[t]he widespread emphasis on ‘multiculturalism’ is an inadequate answer” (vi). Indeed, advocates of “multiculturalism and diversity” have historically been responsible for the ‘demotion’ of ‘Western Civilization’ as a form of oppressive

“racism, imperialism, sexism, and colonialism” (14-15). While no explicit approval of a white nationalist or racist agenda is offered or most likely intended, the subtle, persistent critique of ‘multiculturalism’ juxtaposed against a vision of Western “world power” (cf. supremacy), endorsed by an opening citation from Ibn Warraq, a well-known anti-Muslim Christian apologist,65 all share much in common with white nationalist and racist attempts to revive Western Civilization narratives in recent decades.

As for Niall Ferguson in Civilization: The West and the Rest (2011), he argues that “Western civilization’s rise to global dominance is the single most important historical phenomenon of the past five centuries.”66 Ferguson’s work was reviewed by Pankaj Mishra in London Review of Books (LRB).67 Ferguson himself, in a lengthy retort to Mishra, summarized quite accurately the main point of concern:

Mishra begins by insinuating a resemblance between me and the American racial theorist Theodore Lothrop Stoddard. Stoddard, the author of The Rising Tide of Color against White World-Supremacy (1920), was an out-and-out racist, a firm believer in ‘Aryan’ racial superiority, an opponent of unrestricted immigration and a Nazi sympathiser. Mishra describes my book The Pity of War as ‘Stoddardesque’. He goes on to say that my 2003 book Empire ‘belonged recognisably to the tradition of … “white people’s histories”’…68

Ferguson flatly rejected Mishra’s depiction of him as a racist of any sort, demanding an apology in the process. The two went back and forth in several exchanges. Mishra replied: “Hardly anyone is a racist in the Stoddardian sense today, even if they raise the alarm against Muslim ‘colonisers’ of a ‘senescent’ Europe, or fret about feckless white Americans being outpaced by hard- working Asian-Americans. Ferguson is no racist, in part because he lacks the steady convictions of racialist ideologues like Stoddard.” Indeed, Mishra never explicitly or directly labeled Ferguson a “racist,” he simply said his writings were “Stoddardesque.” What he meant by that was made clear in what immediately followed within the review, namely a critique of Ferguson’s pro-Western imperialist and supremacist position which, Hegelian style, leaves Asian, African and other ‘non- Western peoples ‘historyless’:

This wistful vision of an empire on which the sun need never have set had an immediately obvious defect. It grossly underestimated – in fact, ignored altogether – the growing strength of anti-colonial movements across Asia, which, whatever happened in Europe, would have undermined Britain’s dwindling capacity to manage its vast overseas holdings.

In his later reply, Mishra likewise cited Ferguson’s comments in the April 2003 edition of the New York Times Magazine – “‘Let me come clean, I am a fully paid-up member of the neoimperialist gang’” – which was published “a few weeks after the shock-and-awe campaign began in Iraq.” To this Mishra added another comment by Ferguson appearing in The Guardian just before his LRB review was published where Ferguson suggested of Native Americans that, “had they been left to their own devices, I don’t think we’d have anything remotely resembling the civilisation we’ve had in North America.” All this, in Mishra’s eyes, constituted Ferguson’s “views on the innate superiority, indeed indispensability, of Western civilization” which “can be easily ascertained from his published writings and statements.” Mishra then added for good measure: “It says something about the political culture of our age that Ferguson has got away with this disgraced worldview for as long as he has.” Indeed,

the question is rightly posed: Do historiographic interpretations of “the innate superiority, indeed indispensability, of Western civilization” not resemble the ‘classic’ white supremacist claims of days gone by, simply sanitized of the old biological racist views?69 Whether or not his work equivocates white and Western civilization, Ferguson at least seems to have rejected those old biological racist views within his work.

All this, combined with post-9/11 Islamophobia, increasing concern over disproportionate incarceration of blacks within the U.S. prison system, the spike in white police brutality incidents against blacks, racist shootings, racist reactions against the Obama presidency, white nationalist and racist support of Donald Trump, white nationalist and racist incidents across Europe and European offshoot nations, and related social tensions, has led universities like Columbia to hold forums on “Race, Ethnicity and University Life,” as they did in November 2015. The event “was organized by the Office of University Life to address institutionalized racism in light of nationwide protests regarding the experiences of students of color on college campuses.” One of the topics addressed there by one of the students was how ““the Core Curriculum,” which requires six courses on Western and European Civilization, “further silences students of color by requiring students to read texts that ignore the existence of marginalized people and their histories. …We are looking at history through the lens of these powerful, white men.””70 This view was shared by Eric Hirsch, a sociology professor, during a similar forum on racism held at Providence College (PC) in Rhode Island in February 2016. Hirsh

said he began speaking out at PC about how the Western Civilization curriculum favored ‘dead white males.’ He found it racist that ‘the core of our curriculum’ involved the justification of colonialism, slavery and genocide. Hirsch sees the vote that first denied him tenure as an act of repression prompted by his activism.71

Anthony Monteiro – a former professor fired from Temple University’s African American Studies Department for, he believes, his activism on this and related issues72 – views matters in much the same way. In a March 2015 essay on his African American Futures website entitled “The Racist Foundations of Western Civilization and the White Working Class,” he argues that “Western civilization is inherently racist. Put another way Western Civilization is white civilization.”

Against the backdrop of these (and other) sentiments, students once again voted down, by a margin of 1,992 to 347, a proposed reinstatement of the Western Civilization requirement at Stanford University in May 2016. This was in spite of the attempt by Executive Director of the National Association of Scholars and co-author of The Vanishing West, Ashley Thorne, to encourage “The drive to put Western civ back in the college curriculum,” which was the title of her Op-Ed piece published in the New York Times in March 2016.73 After the vote failed to pass, The Stanford Review, which had advanced both this and the earlier 1980s proposal, issued the following statement maintaining its historic position:

While the proposed requirement was arguably different from the previous one, these students resisted choosing the West over other civilizations. Their rhetoric was dominated by the left-wing perception that Western Civilization is wholly oppressive. The Review answered this objection by pointing out that we can only critique Western culture’s legacy when we know it, and that the

impetus to end slavery and secure equal rights for women and minorities came from Western values.”74

Drawing from the 1996 work by Sacks and Thiel, The Diversity Myth: ‘Multiculturalism’ and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford (see above), Daphne Patai likewise joined in condemning the vote with a September 2016 article entitled “How Diversity Came to Mean ‘Downgrade the West’.” The article was originally posted on the Minding the Campus: Reforming Our Universities website and then cross-posted on the National Association of Scholars website, the organization which sponsored and published the study on The Vanishing West (see above). 75 Others joined “In Defense of Western Civilization” as well, such as Richard Finger in The Huffington Post. After dismissing the criticisms expressed in the forums at Columbia, he made clear his own view on the matter:

For better or worse, Western civilization was built almost solely by white men in Europe; the greatest invention of mankind, condoning freedom of expression and creativity like no others. There I said it. Western civilization is superior. Though this truth can be inconvenient, it makes for no obstacle on any campus of higher learning.76

In general response to these overall historical developments, Kehinde Andrews, associate professor of sociology at Birmingham City University in England, offered these summary thoughts in a video released on The Guardian newspaper website on January 2017:

The West was built on racism. It’s time we faced that. In schools and at universities we are sold a lie. It is the lie that the three great revolutions of science, industry and politics are solely responsible for the advancement of the West. But in truth, none of this so-called ‘progress’ happened without the genocide in the Americas, the barbaric slavery of African people, and the colonization of most of the world by European powers. The dead white men we are trained to revere created the knowledge that justified this conquest and murder. But the narrow, Eurocentric parade of ‘dead white men’ as the center of knowledge is finally being challenged in our institutions. And this is not a battle about ‘inclusion’ or ‘diversity’. It is not a debate that is simply academic. The knowledge that the establishment is so quick to defend produced the racism that has shaped the unjust world that we live in today.77

Regardless of what one concludes about this long-standing debate, 78 these developments within the context of the U.S. are a major reason why – as Ama Mazama has highlighted in both the Journal of Black Studies and The Washington Post – “Racism in schools is pushing more black families to homeschool their children.” 79 Meanwhile, in imitation of the anti-immigration (i.e. anti-Syrian refugee) laws in Europe, the new U.S. administration seems bent on returning to the racist-inspired anti-immigration and deportation policies of the 1880-1965 post-Reconstructionist era by issuing a new ‘national (and religious) origins’ immigration act signed into power by executive order of the newly elected President Donald J. Trump on January 27, 2017. The executive order is titled “Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” with its central justification explained as follows:

The United States cannot, and should not, admit those who do not support the Constitution, or those who would place violent ideologies over American law. In addition, the United States should not admit those who engage in acts of bigotry or hatred (including "honor" killings, other forms of

violence against women, or the persecution of those who practice religions different from their own) or those who would oppress Americans of any race, gender, or sexual orientation.80

The Muslim focus of this order is clear from not only the language used, but the specific list of seven countries whose citizens were banned from entry, i.e. all Muslim-majority countries. This is in spite of the fact that there is no factual data to support the idea that immigrants or refugees from these particular nations pose more of a threat to the U.S. than multiple other nations which could have been listed. Regardless, according to this rationale, numerous white nationalists, neo-Nazis and fundamentalist Christians, together with perpetrators of domestic violence against women, should potentially, for the safety and well-being of the United States, have their citizenship revoked and be deported. In suggesting this, it should be noted that the concerns identified by the executive order are more than simply ‘terrorism’.81 They include “acts of bigotry or hatred” and “forms of violence against women,” along with persecution or discrimination against others based on religious, racial, or gender identity, or sexual orientation. Indeed, amid national and international pandemonium over this executive order, what escaped the attention of the media and broader public was the fact that two days earlier, Trump had signed another executive order aimed at “Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States.” Along, therefore, with restricting entry to the U.S. based on national (and religious) origins, the prior order declared that,

[i]n executing faithfully the immigration laws of the United States, the Secretary of Homeland Security (Secretary) shall prioritize for removal those aliens described by the Congress…in [the stated sections of] the INA [Immigration and Nationality Act] 82 …as well as removable aliens who…[i]n the judgment of an immigration officer, otherwise pose a risk to public safety or national security.83

In both of these executive orders, the right to exercise ‘judgment’ of both ‘intentions’ and ‘risk’ provide for highly arbitrary ‘executive decisions’ to be made by those entrusted with such power. Some see the order as “targeting up to 8 million people for deportation,” mostly Hispanics and Muslims.84 True, a federal judge in New York intervened on behalf of multiple people trapped at airports across the US after Trump’s order was met with strong protest around the globe. But he made no ruling on the constitutionality of the order.85 Washington State then set out to sue Trump for disrupting their economy and society, with the Washington state attorney general successfully convincing a federal judge in Seattle to place a national stay on Trump’s executive order, calling into question its very constitutionality. The appeal of the Justice Department to rescind the stay was “denied” by the ninth circuit federal appeals court, who upheld instead the concern for the constitutionality of the order. 86 Along with these legal moves and mass international protests, multiple statements opposing the legislation were issued across the globe. In spite of this, Trump signed a new executive order on Monday, March 6, which accomplishes the same essential aims as the original order, making only minor revisions in an attempt to avoid the pitfalls of the first one.87

Whatever the outcome of this debate, one thing is historically clear: It was, no doubt, white nationalism and racism which played a significant role in pushing through the Page Act of 1875, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Asiatic Barred Zone Immigration Act of 1917, and the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, all culminating in the Immigration, National Origins and Asian Exclusion Acts of

1924.88 In conjunction with these externally-oriented immigration acts, all of which were aimed at keeping “undesirable” aliens from entering the United States, “increasing use of deportation supplemented the quota system in reducing the nation’s alien population” in the decades which followed.89 It is no coincidence that Trump’s national (and religious) origins-based immigration and deportation policies, both in their original and revised form, parallel these earlier racist-based policies in close conjunction with a revival of white nationalism and racism across the United States, Canada, Europe and the broader Western world today.90 Trump’s executive orders effectively reverse L.B. Johnson’s Immigration Act of 1965, which was signed together with Civil Rights legislation in order to intentionally overturn the racist, discriminatory immigration laws of the 1880-1965 era.91 It is part of what Marisa Abrajano and Zoltan L. Hajnal identify as White Backlash: Immigration, Race, and American Politics.92

In seeming retaliation for their coverage of these and other issues in his campaign and early presidency, Trump blocked some of the most important American- and European-based world news sources from White House briefings. “The Associated Press and Time magazine both boycotted the gathering.” 93 This move shares strategies employed by communist, fascist and other oppressive regimes in world history. It raises serious questions about the transparency of the new Trump administration and its commitment to upholding Western democratic values and ideals.94

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Among numerous other issues emerging from the historical overview provided in both chapters of this opening section, eight points can be made regarding the lingering problem of the relation between ‘Western Civilization’ and ‘white civilization’:

1- 'Western Civilization' narratives originally took shape within a historic context when white racist thinking was accepted and predominant (late 1800s, early 1900s);

2- Whether 'racist' or not, there has been a long-standing, historic tie between 'white civilization' and 'Western civilization' in original/earlier 'Western Civilization' and world history narratives (late 1700s to mid-1900s);

3- White racist interpretations of Western Civilization and world history were produced during the heyday of white racist ideology (mid-1800s to mid-1900s);

4- There has been a resurgence of white nationalist and racist interpretations over the past 2-3 decades as a response to (neo-)liberal 'pluralist' and 'multiculturalist' ideologies and policies in especially the post-Cold War era as evidenced in the work of American Renaissance, Preserving Western Civilization, Youth for Western Civilization, Students for Western Civilization, The Occidental Observer, Ricardo Duchesne and the Council of European Canadians, and others;

5- Academic and political efforts to revive the teaching of Western Civilization in colleges and universities do not explicitly identify nor necessarily even intend their agendas as ‘white nationalist’ or ‘racist’, but they nonetheless coincide historically with and share much in common by way of themes and concerns with parallel white nationalist and racist attempts to revive and promote ‘Western Civilization’ in recent decades.

6- There remains an implicit, even if unintended, connection between 'white civilization' and 'Western civilization' in some (though not all) 'Western Civilization' texts (and presumably courses) over the past several decades, especially those emphasizing 'internal' over 'external' factors of influence and development. These are both perceived by non-white, ‘non-Western’ peoples as being inherently racist (i.e. histories of 'dead white men') and raise the legitimate question of whether, if not ‘racist’, then at least 'racial' connotations/implications/associations can legitimately be discerned within them, however naïve/innocent/unintentional such connotations/implications may be.

7- There is a legitimate question of what racial relation exists between the authorship and/or promotion of Western Civilization narratives and ‘white’ peoples. This is not to automatically insinuate ‘white nationalism’ or ‘racism’ on the part of all white people who advocate the revival of ‘Western Civilization’, but it raises what constitutes a legitimate question of historical and sociological inquiry. Though there are certainly ‘non-white’ advocates to be found (such as Ibn Warraq, Dinesh D’Souza and others), these raise the historic problem of the ‘white Western civilizing mission’ which aimed to convert Native Americans and other ‘non-white, non-Western’ peoples to what continued to be viewed, at its sources and foundations, as ‘white Western civilization’.95 Thus figures such as the Cherokee advocate of Western Civilization, Elias Boudinot, or the Lakota (Sioux) advocate, Charles Eastman, or the advocate of Russian civilization, Shokan Ualikhanuhli, were all viewed as prized ‘converts’ and proofs of the superiority of ‘white Western civilization’, not as demonstrations of the dissociation between ‘white’ and ‘Western’ civilization.96 While most are eager to deny any and all associations of ‘whiteness’ in the allegedly ‘post-racial’ (cf. post-Nazi, post-Civil Rights, post-Apartheid) era, the lingering historical and implicit relation remains problematic. Genuine transcendence of the problem requires not merely conversion of non-white, non-Western peoples to the alleged superior ways of white Western civilization, but Western Civilization narratives which clearly and authentically showcase and demonstrate ‘non- white’, ‘non-Western’ contributions to, as primary sources of, what is defined as ‘Western Civilization’ (cf. the UNESCO vision for world history discussed above).

8- In tandem with the ‘new world histories’, a number of ‘Western Civilization’ narratives have, in fact, responded to this half-century of debate by adopting a more global, crosscultural, multicultural, transnational, and/or transregional approach. They place ‘Western Civ’ within broader world historical context by emphasizing non-white, ‘non-Western’ contributions. This has been most notably illustrated in the Columbia Project on Asia in the Core Curriculum: Asia in Western and World History.97 In a word, such approaches have moved away from Eurocentric and (white) nationalist or racist interpretations. They recognize that all civilizations contain both positive and negative legacies and features; that the issue is not ‘either/or’, as if only one civilization must be made to stand superior over all others within the world historical record, that approaches which ‘demote the West’ from this privileged position should not simplistically, automatically be condemned as promoting an ‘anti-Western cultural relativism’. Each ‘civilization’ can be recognized for both its strengths and weaknesses as well as its contributions to world heritage, including ‘universal human values and ideals’.

All of this remains part of an ongoing debate in which various competing religions, cultures, ethnic groups, races, nations, civilizations, genders and others each – as contested constructs – claim to be the fountainhead of beliefs, values and practices foundational and essential to ‘human civilization’ which all others should then adopt, whether voluntarily or coercively. While the focus here has been

on ethno-racial and socio-political forms of the debate, Christianity’s perceived role, as an essential source undergirding and inspiring ‘Western Civilization’, surfaces along the way. This is in spite of the fact that Christianity was, in fact, originally a Middle Eastern religion, and thus reflects the way that ‘Western Civilization’ contains significant influence from Middle Eastern (and other non-white, ‘non-Western’) sources historically. An entire book could, in fact, be written focusing on the religio- cultural dimensions of this debate. This is reflected, for example, in the post-9/11 resurgence of the debate over Islamic influence on ‘Western Civilization’. Thus, Nayef R. F. Al-Rodhan has edited a volume titled The Role of the Arab-Islamic World in the Rise of the West: Implications for Contemporary Trans- Cultural Relations (2012).98 It is likewise seen in a neo-Weberian work entitled The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism and Western Success published in 2005 by professor of historical sociology at Baylor University Rodney Stark. He followed this work in 2014 with How the West Won: The Neglected Story of the Triumph of Modernity.99 Reviving some of the early 20th-century Catholic interpretations of Christopher Dawson, Thomas E. Woods, Jr. seeks to show How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization (2005).100 And even before 9/11, Abdulaziz Sachedina, a professor at the Uniuversity of Virginia, was attempting to demonstrate The Islamic Roots of Democratic Pluralism (2001).101 Whatever form they take though, the depiction of these debates as a simplistic dichotomy – i.e. whether there will or will not be a ‘clash of civilizations’ – is misleading at best. The question is far more complex, namely whether all the diverse groups of the world will live in ‘conflict, conversion or co-existence’? And even here the range of options should be viewed more as a continuum on a sliding scale, with all three in effect simultaneously around the globe in varying balance and degree.

References *For authors/works cited more than once, an Author Index is supplied at the end of the chapter for reference back to the first endnote in which the full bibliographical citation occurs, together all other references in which the author is named.

1 Special thanks to the following for offering critical comments on the initial draft of this chapter, or portions thereof: Edward E. Curtis IV, Lawrence Pintak, Theresa Jordan, Clif Stratton, Jared Secord and Ken Faunce. They all share in whatever quality and value the chapter has achieved. I alone take responsibility for its final contents and shortcomings. 2 Poul Duedahl, “Selling Mankind: UNESCO and the Invention of Global History, 1945-1976,” Journal of World History, Vol 22, No 1 (Mar 2011): 101, 113. 3 Lynn Hunt, Writing History in the Global Era (W.W. Norton, Inc., 2015), p. 47. 4 Gilbert Allardyce, “Toward World History: American Historians and the Coming of the World History Course,” Journal of World History, Vol 1, No 1 (1990): 28-35. 5 W.H. McNeill, The Rise of the West: A History of the Human Community (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1963), "The Rise of the West after Twenty-five Years," Journal of World History, Vol 1, No 1 (1990): 1-21, and W.H. McNeill and J.R. McNeill, The Human Web: A Bird’s-Eye View of World History (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 2003). 6 Glenn Ricketts, Peter W. Wood, Stephen H. Balch, and Ashley Thorne, The Vanishing West: 1964-2010: The Disappearance of Western Civilization from the American Undergraduate Curriculum (Princeton, NJ: National Association of Scholars, 2011). 7 Malcolm X, Malcolm X on Afro-American History, ed. Betty Shabazz, 3rd ed. (New York: Pathfinder Press, 1990), p. 19. 8 I use both ‘white nationalist’ and ‘racist’ in close connection, though not as interchangeable synonyms with one another. This recognizes that ‘white nationalists’ typically deny that they are ‘racist’, while many others consider them to be inherently ‘racist’ in their ideology as well as practice. 9 Robert Young, White Mythologies: Writing History and the West (New York and London: Routledge, 1990), p. 1, citing Hélène Cixous and Catherine Clément, The Newly Born Woman, tr. Betsy Wing (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1986), p. 70. 10 Gilbert Allardyce, "The Rise and Fall of the Western Civilization Course," American Historical Review, 87/3 (June, 1982), 719. 11 Malcolm X, Malcolm X on Afro-American History, pp. 19, 24.

12 Judith Brown, George Dekker, Bill King, William Chace, Carlos Camargo, J. Martin Evans, Ronald Rebholz, Carl Degler, Barbara Gelpi and Renato Rosaldo, “Statements Delivered to the Meeting of the [Stanford] Faculty Senate on 4 February, 1988,” Minerva, Vol. 27, No. 2/3 (June 1989), p. 312. Cf. Mary Louise Pratt, “Humanities for the Future: Reflections on the Western Culture Debate at Stanford,” in The Politics of Liberal Education, ed. Darryl Gless and Barbara Hernnstein Smith, 13-32 (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991). 13 King et al, “Statements Delivered to the Meeting of the [Stanford] Faculty Senate,” p. 301. 14 Malcolm X, Malcolm X on Afro-American History, p. 30. 15 Gelpi et al, “Statements Delivered to the Meeting of the [Stanford] Faculty Senate,” p. 314. 16 See points five and seven of the eight concluding points later in the chapter. 17 William J. Bennett, To Reclaim a Legacy: A Report on the Humanities in Higher Education (National Endowment for the Humanities, 1984), p. 30. See also: Lloyd Kramer, Donald Reid, and William L. Barney, eds., Learning History in America: Schools, Cultures, and Politics (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1994). Thanks to Peter Knupfer for this latter reference. 18 Terry Eastland and William J. Bennett, Counting by Race: Equality from the Founding Fathers to Bakke and Weber (Basic Books, 1979). Cf. “William Bennett Biography,” Encyclopedia of World Biography (URL: http://www.notablebiographies.com/Ba- Be/Bennett-William.html; last accessed: Jan 14, 2017). 19 “White House Condemns Bennett's Remark,” New York Times, Oct 1, 2006 (URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/01/politics/white-house-condemns-bennetts-remark.html) and Jim Rutenberg and Mike Macintire, “To Black Audience, Mayor Denounces Racial Comment,” New York Times, Oct 3, 2006 (URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/03/nyregion/metrocampaigns/to-black-audience-mayor-denounces-racial- comment.html; both last accessed: Jan 14, 2017). 20 Allan Bloom, The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today's Students (New York: Simon Schuster, 1987), p. 94. See also Roger Kimball, Tenured Radicals: How Politics Has Corrupted Higher Education (New York: HarperCollins, 1990). 21 Andrew Hartman, A War for the Soul of America: A History of the Culture Wars (University of Chicago Press, 2015), pp. 228-229. 22 David Gates and Tony Clifton, “Say Goodnight, Socrates: Stanford University and the decline of the West,” Newsweek, U.S. Edition, February 1, 1988, p. 46. 23 Bernard Knox, The Oldest Dead White European Males and Other Reflections on the Classics (W. W. Norton & Co., 1993), p. 12. Thanks to Jared Secord for drawing my attention to this book. 24 David O. Sacks and Peter A. Thiel, The Diversity Myth: ‘Multiculturalism’ and Political Intolerance on Campus (Oakland, CA: Independent Institute, 1998), pp. 1-2. See also idem. The Diversity Myth: ‘Multiculturalism’ and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford (Oakland, CA: Independent Institute, 1996). 25 Gary B. Nash, Charlotte Crabtree and Ross E. Dunn, History on Trial: Culture Wars and the Teaching of the Past (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997); ref. to U.S. Senate vote taken from p. x. 26 Victor Davis Hanson and John Heath, Who Killed Homer? The Demise of Classical Education and the Recovery of Greek Wisdom (Free Press, 1998), p. xxiii. Another proponent of Western Civ from this same period was Michael F. Doyle, “"Hisperanto": Western Civilization in the Global Curriculum,” Perspectives on History, May 1998 (URL: https://www.historians.org/publications-and- directories/perspectives-on-history/may-1998/hisperanto-western-civilization-in-the-global-curriculum; last accessed: Jan 4, 2017). The article was originally published in late 1997 in a local journal. 27 All quotations from J.M. Roberts, A History of the World (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 916-919. The same precise phrasing was retained in his 2003 revision which is still available in audio format. Apparently not comfortable with such language, O.A. Westad, who took over revisions of the volume after Roberts’ death in 2003, either significantly revised or, in some cases, dropped altogether Robert’s racist phrasing, at least in the 2013 edition. Following Roberts however, Westad continued to espouse the idea that the world’s “master ideas and institutions…always turn out to be derived from the Western European tradition” (J.M. Roberts and O.M. Westad, The History of the World, 6th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, p. 1179). 28 Cf. P. Novick, “In Defense of the West,” in That Noble Dream: The “Objectivity Question” and the American Historical Profession (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), which highlights a similar mid-20th-century reaction to ‘cultural relativism’. 29 Alana Lentin and Gavan Titley, eds., The Crises of Multiculturalism: Racism in a Neoliberal Age (Zed Books, 2011). Thanks to Robbie Shilliam for this reference. 30 Andrew Kaczynski and Chris Massie, “White nationalists see advocate in Steve Bannon who will hold Trump to his campaign promises,” CNN Politics, Nov 15, 2016 (URL: http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/14/politics/white-nationalists-on-bannon/; last accessed: Jan 10, 2017); cf. however Reena Flores, “Steve Bannon speaks out on white nationalism, Donald Trump agenda,” CBS News, Nov 19, 2016 (URL: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/steve-bannon-on-white-nationalism-donald-trumps-agenda/; also see/listen to the interview of Richard Spencer with Kelly McEvers, “'We're Not Going Away': Alt-Right Leader On Voice In Trump Administration,” NPR: All Things Considered, Nov 17, 2016 (URL: http://www.npr.org/2016/11/17/502476139/were- not-going-away-alt-right-leader-on-voice-in-trump-administration; both last accessed: Jan 22, 2017). From the other side of the

political spectrum, see Steve Phillips, Brown Is the New White: How the Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority (New York: The New Press, 2016). In a challenge to the whole notion of ‘blackness’ as a racial construct, see Michelle Wright, Physics of Blackness: Beyond the Middle Passage Epistemology (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015). Thanks to Robert Eddy for both these latter references. 31 Jay Reeves, “KKK dreams of rising again 150 years after founding,” The Spokesman Review, Jun 30, 2016. URL: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2016/jun/30/kkk-dreams-of-rising-again-150-years-after-foundin/#/0; last accessed: May 4, 2017); cf. David M. Chalmers, Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan, 3rd ed. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1987). 32 “Ten Days After: Harassment and Intimidation in the Aftermath of the Election,” Southern Poverty Law Center, Jan 29, 2016 (URL: https://www.splcenter.org/20161129/ten-days-after-harassment-and-intimidation-aftermath-election; last accessed: Dec 3, 2016). The report was featured on BBC, CNN, Fox News, Forbes and numerous others. 33 Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan homepage (URL: http://www.kkkknights.com/; last accessed: May 14, 2017). 34 White Aryan Resistance (WAR) website (URL: http://www.resist.com/About/index.html; last accessed: May 14, 2017). 35 See esp. Meagan Day, “Welcome to Hayden Lake, where white supremacists tried to build their homeland: The troubling rise of the Aryan Nations compound,” Timeline.com, Nov 4, 2016 (URL: https://timeline.com/white-supremacist-rural-paradise- fb62b74b29e0; last accessed: May 14, 2017). 36 Leonard Zeskind, Blood and Politics: The History of the White Nationalist Movement from the Margins to the Mainstream (New York : Farrar Straus Giroux, 2009). See also Justin Gest, The New Minority: White Working Class Politics in an Age of Immigration and Inequality (New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2016) and White Terror, dir. Daniel Schweizer (Sweden: Cameo Film- und Fernsehproduktion, Dschoint Ventschr Filmproduktion AG, Horizon Films, Little Bear and Making Movies Oy, 2005). 37 “What We Believe,” National Alliance website (URL: https://natall.com/about/what-we-believe/; last accessed: May 14, 2017). 38 See e.g. the Anti-Defamation League’s report, “U.S. Anti-Semitic Incidents Spike 86 Percent So Far in 2017 After Surging Last Year,” ADL, Apr 24, 2017 (URL: https://www.adl.org/news/press-releases/us-anti-semitic-incidents-spike-86-percent-so-far- in-2017) and Jenny J. Chen, “First-Ever Tracker Of Hate Crimes Against Asian-Americans Launched,” NPR, Feb 17, 2017, which reports that “After years of declining numbers, hate crimes against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders are rising exponentially.” (URL: http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/02/17/515824196/first-ever-tracker-of-hate-crimes- against-asian-americans-launched; both websites last accessed: May 22, 2017). 39 Ricardo Duchesne, “Defending the rise of western culture against its multicultural critics,” The European Legacy, Vol 10, No 5 (2010): 455-484. 40 Ricardo Duchesne, The Uniqueness of Western Civilization (Leiden: Brill, 2011), p. ix. 41 Ricardo Duchesne, “Centres and Margins: the Fall of Universal World History and the Rise of Multicultural World History,” in World Histories, ed. Marnie Hughes-Warrington (Basingstoke, Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), pp. 154, 158-59. 42 Three quotes in paragraph from, respectively: Duchesne, “Centres and Margins,” p. 153 and Uniqueness of Western Civilization, pp. x-xi. 43 The Editors, “Our Beliefs and Goals,” Council of European Canadians website, May 20, 2014 (URL: http://www.eurocanadian.ca/2014/05/our-beliefs-and-goals.html; last accessed: Jan 8, 2017). 44 “UNB defends prof's academic freedom in wake of racism complaint,” CBC News, Jan 7, 2015 (URL: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/unb-defends-prof-s-academic-freedom-in-wake-of-racism-complaint- 1.2892206); Avvy go, Dora Nipp and Winnie Ng, “What this UNB professor practices is intolerance, not sociology,” The Globe and Mail, Jan 22, 2015 (URL: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/what-this-unb-professor-practices-is-intolerance-not- sociology/article22573743/); and Colleen Flaherty, “Freedom to Discriminate?,” Inside Higher Ed, Jan 9, 2015 (URL: https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/01/09/canadian-professors-spar-over-limits-academic-freedom; all last accessed: Jan 8, 2017). 45 “Ricardo Duchesne: the Marxist-Hegelian who became a White Nationalist,” The Louis Proyect, Jan 20, 2016 (URL: https://louisproyect.org/2016/01/20/ricardo-duchesne-the-marxist-hegelian-who-became-a-white-nationalist/; last accessed: Jan 8, 2017). Thanks to Tony Goulem for this reference. 46 Kevin MacDonald, “Mission Statement: A New Webzine: Introducing the Occidental Observer,” (URL: http://www.theoccidentalobserver.net/mission/; last accessed: Jan 8, 2017). 47 Kevin MacDonald, “Council of European Canadians: An Excellent Website in Defense of the People and Culture of the West,” The Daily Stormer, Jun 6, 2014 (URL: http://www.dailystormer.com/council-of-european-canadians-an-excellent-website-in- defense-of-the-people-and-culture-of-the-west/; last accessed: Jan 8, 2017). Thanks to Eric Martin for this reference. 48 Christopher De La Viña, “ White Man: Why Are You Giving Away Your Country?,” American Renaissance, Apr 23, 2015 ( https://www.amren.com/features/2015/04/white-man-why-are-you-giving-away-your-country/; last accessed: Jan 8, 2017).

49 “Our Issues” American Renaissance (URL: https://www.amren.com/about/issues/; last accessed: Jan 16, 2017). The American Cause, founded by Pat Buchanan, has also been listed as a white racist organization by some. It’s vision statement, however, proclaims: “We believe that all forms of discrimination are wrong and oppose any policy that prejudices or prefers individuals or groups on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity, or national origin.” Nonetheless, they also “believe assimilation and national unity should be the guiding principles in formulating immigration policy and support initiatives that end illegal immigration, reduce legal immigration to manageable levels, and emphasize integration of immigrants and their communities.” This raises the question of which ’culture’ provides the basis for “assimilation” and “integration,” i.e. seemingly the predominant white Christian Euro-American (URL: http://www.theamericancause.org/index.php?page=about-the-cause; last accessed: Jan 16, 2017). 50 “White People,” The New Moderate (URL: https://newmoderate.com/the-issues/white-people/; last accessed: Jan 8, 2017). 51 Michael Hart, Understanding Human History (Whitefish, MT: Washington Summit Publishers, 2007) and Restoring America (Litchfield, CT: VDare, 2015). Cf. Bennett, To Reclaim a Legacy. 52 On home page and “About” of Preserving Western Civilization website (see endnote above). 53 Richard Spencer should not be confused with Robert Spencer, founder of Jihad Watch. While concerns for anti-Western Islamic terrorism are legitimate, the website promotes extremist anti-Muslim rhetoric (URL: https://www.jihadwatch.org/; last accessed: Jan 22, 2017). Both are considered part of the ‘alt-right’ movement however. 54 Racists Gather in Maryland to “Preserve” Western Civilization,” Anti-Defamation League website, Feb 13, 2009 (URL: http://www.adl.org/civil-rights/immigration/c/racists-gather-in-maryland.html; last accessed: Jan 8, 2017); cf. Devin Burghart, “Inside the Preserving Western Civilization Conference,” Institute for Research & Education on Human Rights, Apr 1, 2009 (URL: http://www.irehr.org/2009/04/01/inside-the-preserving-western-civilization-conference/; last accessed: Jan 10, 2017); cf. also “Henry Harpending,” Southern Poverty Law Center, nd (URL: https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist- files/individual/henry-harpending; last accessed: Jan 8, 2017). 55 Students for Western Civilization website (URLs: http://www.studentsforwesterncivilisation.com/mission-statement- and http://www.studentsforwesterncivilisation.com/, respectively; last accessed: Jan 8, 2017). 56 See “Youth for Western Civilization,” ForStudentPower (URL: http://www.forstudentpower.org/youth-for-western- civilization; last accessed: Jan 16, 2017). 57 David Neiwert, “Montana Republicans Warmly Embrace a White Nationalist's Legislative Candidacy,” Southern Poverty Law Center, Oct 10, 2016 (URL: https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2016/10/10/montana-republicans-warmly-embrace- white-nationalists-legislative-candidacy; last accessed: Jan 10, 2017). 58 Taylor Rose, Return of the Right: How the Political Right Is Taking Back Western Civilization (Tampa, FL: TL Publishing House, 2012), pp. 9-11, 24-25, 39. 59 See esp. Michael Barkun, Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement, 2nd ed. (University of North Carolina Press, 1996). The Christian Identity movements seems to have strong ties to the old Anglo-Israel identity movement emerging out of Britain in the late 1700s (cf. David Baron’s 1915 study entitled The History of the Ten Lost Tribes: Anglo-Israelism Examined; it has been reissued in numerous editions since that time). On a related, but distinct topic, see Eve Darian-Smith, Religion, Race, Rights: Landmarks in the History of Modern Anglo-American Law (Portland, OR: Hart Publishing, 2010), who treats the historical particularity of Anglo-American law in relation to both the white race and Western Christian religion. 60 Nick Visser, "A GOP Congressman Just Made An Argument For White Supremacy On Live TV," The Huffington Post, July 18, 2016. (URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/steve-king-white-people-western- civilization_us_578d5f34e4b0a0ae97c320ed; last accessed: Nov 23, 2016). 61 Daniel Victor, “What, Congressman Steve King Asks, Have Nonwhites Done for Civilization?,” New York Times, July 18, 2016. (URL: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/19/us/politics/steve-king-nonwhite-subgroups.html?_r=0; last accessed: Nov 23, 2016). 62 John Pincince, "Jerry Bentley, World History, and the Decline of the West," Journal of World History, Vol 25, No 4 (2014): 4. 63 See points five and seven of the eight concluding points outlined below in the main text. 64 Niall Ferguson, Civilization: The West and the Rest (New York: Penguin Press, 2011). 65 Though not the source cited in The Vanishing West, still the primary work on which it is based is Ibn Warraq, Why the West is Best: A Muslim Apostate's Defense of Liberal Democracy (New York: Encounter Books, 2011). It is of interest that Encounter Books draws its name from “an Anglo-American literary journal,” i.e. one which is ‘white-American’ (https://www.encounterbooks.com/about/; last accessed: Jan 17, 2017). Warraq shares much in common with Robert Spencer, founder of Jihad Watch (see above). 66 Quoted from the book description, Penguin Press website (URL: http://thepenguinpress.com/book/civilization-the-west-and- the-rest/; last accessed: Jan 17, 2017). 67 Pankaj Mishra, “Watch This Man” (review of Civilization: The West and the Rest, by Niall Ferguson), London Review of Books, Vol 33, No 21 (2011): 10–12 (URL: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n21/pankaj-mishra/watch-this-man; last accessed: Jan 16, 2017). 68 “Letters,” London Review of Books, Vol 33, No 22 (Nov 2011); (URL: http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n22/letters#letter1; last accessed: Jan 16, 2017).

69 Cf. Barnor Hesse, “Racialized modernity: An analytics of white mythologies,” Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol 30, No 4 (2007): 643-663 (DOI: 10.1080/01419870701356064): “Modernity is racial. Whiteness, Christian, the West, Europeanness comprise a series of racial tropes intimately connected with organicist and universalist metaphors so frequently assumed in various canonical accounts of modernity. However, from Kant, Hegel and Marx to Weber, Foucault and Habermas, hegemonic conceptions of modernity (e.g. ‘rationality’, ‘liberalism’, ‘capitalism’, ‘secularism’, ‘rule of law’) have been retold in precisely these racial terms without those terms becoming part of a critique of race in contemporary thought” (643-44). Thanks to Edward E. Curtis IV for this reference. 70 Erin Mizraki, “Students, faculty address institutionalized racism at University Life event,” Columbia Daily Spectator, Nov 19, 2015. (URL: http://columbiaspectator.com/news/2015/11/18/students-faculty-address-institutionalized-racism-university- life-event; last accessed: Jan 8, 2017). See also: “Race, Ethnicity and University Life: Next Steps,” Office of University Life, Columbia University, Nov 24, 2015 (URL: http://universitylife.columbia.edu/blog/office-university-life-blog/2015/11/race- ethnicity-and-university-life-next-steps); cf. Kai Johnson, Tanika Lynch, Elizabeth Monroe, and Tracey Wang, “Our identities matter in Core classrooms,” The Columbia Spectator, Apr 30, 2015: “Students at the forum…hosted by the Multicultural Affairs Advisory Board on Literature Humanities last semester…expressed that they have felt that Literature Humanities and Contemporary Civilization’s curricula are often presented as a set of universal, venerated, incontestable principles and texts that have founded Western society.” (URL: http://columbiaspectator.com/opinion/2015/04/30/our-identities-matter-core- classrooms; both last accessed: Jan 18, 2017) 71 Donita Naylor, “PC [Providence College] forum on racism evokes personal stories of discrimination,” Providence Journal website, Feb 19, 2016 (URL: http://www.providencejournal.com/news/20160218/pc-forum-on-racism-evokes-personal- stories-of-discrimination; last accessed: Jan 8, 2017). 72 “DSA sees the firing of Professor Monteiro [in 2014] as part of a broader neoliberal assault on the value of public higher education.” “Statement on the Firing of Dr. Anthony Monteiro from Temple University’s African American Studies Department,” Democratic Socialists of America website (URL: http://www.dsausa.org/statement_monteiro; last accessed: Jan 8, 2017). 73 Ashley Thorne, “The drive to put Western civ back in the college curriculum,” New York Times, Mar 29, 2016 (URL: http://nypost.com/2016/03/29/the-drive-to-put-western-civ-back-in-the-college-curriculum/; last accessed: Feb 3, 2017). 74 Stanford Review Editorial Board, “Update on the State of Western Civilization at Stanford,” National Association of Scholars, May 2, 2016 (URL: https://www.nas.org/articles/update_on_the_state_of_western_civilization_at_stanford; last accessed: Jan 10, 2017). 75 Daphne Patai, “How Diversity Came to Mean ‘Downgrade the West’,” Minding the Campus: Reforming Our Universities website, Sep 12, 2016. (URL: http://www.mindingthecampus.org/2016/09/how-diversity-came-to-mean-downgrade-the-west/); reposted on National Association of Scholars website, Sep 15, 2016. (URL: https://www.nas.org/articles/how_diversity_came_to_mean_downgrade_the_west; both last accessed: Jan 20, 2017). 76 Richard Finger, “In Defense of Western Civilization,” The Huffington Post, May 16, 2016 (URL: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-finger/in-defense-of-western-civ_b_9985136.html; last accessed: Jan 8, 2017). See also: Dennis Prager, “Why the Left Loathes Western Civilization: The motivation behind leftist hate for the West,” The Dennis Prager Show website, Apr 26, 2016 (URL: http://www.dennisprager.com/keeping-the-northeastern-primary-in-perspective/; last accessed: Jan 8, 2017). Prager’s article went ‘viral’, appearing on numerous conservative websites, including The National Review, FrontPage Magazine, Free Republic, Conservative Chronicle, and more. 77 Kehinde Andrews, Leah Green and Bruno Rinvolucri, “The west was built on racism. It's time we faced that – video,” The Guardian, Jan 18, 2017. (URL: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2017/jan/18/the-west-was-built-on- racism-its-time-we-faced-that-video; last accessed: Jan 23, 2017). 78 For an in-depth look at the debate over these issues from a Western classics point of view, see Eric Adler, Classics, the Culture Wars, and Beyond (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2016). Adler critically reviews, among others, Allan Bloom’s Closing of the American Mind, Roger Kimball’s Tenured Radicals, Martin Benal’s Black Athena: The Afroasiatic Roots of Classical Civilization (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1987) and Hanson and Heath’s Who Killed Homer? He offers nuanced discussion of the relation between ‘white civilization’ and ‘Western civilization’ along the way, arguing ultimately for increased attention to the classics as an essential source of Western history, identity and values. Cf. Colin McDonald, “Classics, the Culture Wars, and Beyond, Eric Adler,” Classics for All, Jan 6, 2017 (URL: http://classicsforall.org.uk/book-reviews/classics-culture-wars-beyond/; last accessed: Feb 3, 2017). Thanks to Jared Secord for drawing my attention to this book. Secord is currently working to revise his doctoral dissertation for publication under the tentative title An Ancient Culture War: Cross-Cultural Intellectual Encounters in the Roman World, 100 BCE – 300 CE. His opening chapter, “Hellenocentric Histories of the World,” offers in-depth analysis of the first-century BCE writer Diodorus of Sicily’s Library of History. 79 Ama Mazama, “Racism in schools is pushing more black families to homeschool their children.” The Washington Post, Apr 10, 2015. (URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/04/10/racism-in-schools-is-pushing-more-black- families-to-homeschool-their-children/?utm_term=.167e03c51f3a) and Mazama, Ama and Garvey Lundy. “African American

Homeschooling as Racial Protectionism.” Journal of Black Studies, Vol. 43, No. 7 (2012): 723-748. Doi:10.1177/0021934712457042. Thanks to my student Maggie Joe Uceny for these references and her work on this topic. 80 Donald J. Trump, “Executive Order: Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States,” The White House: Office of the Press Secretary, Jan 27, 2017 (URL: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/27/executive- order-protecting-nation-foreign-terrorist-entry-united-states; last accessed: Feb 5, 2017). 81 Cf. Julie Farnam, US Immigration Laws under the Threat of Terrorism (New York: Algora Publishing, 2005). 82 “Immigration and Nationality Act,” U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services website (URL: https://www.uscis.gov/ilink/docView/SLB/HTML/SLB/act.html; last accessed: Feb 5, 2017). 83 Donald J. Trump, “Executive Order: Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States,” The White House: Office of the Press Secretary, Jan 25, 2017 (URL: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/01/25/presidential-executive-order- enhancing-public-safety-interior-united; last accessed: Feb 5, 2017). Cf. Jeremy Berke, "Trump's most forceful executive order on immigration isn't the immigration ban," Business Insider, Feb 4, 2017; http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-immigration- ban-executive-order-chaos-2017-1; last accessed: Feb 5, 2017). 84 Brian Bennett, “Not just 'bad hombres': Trump is targeting up to 8 million people for deportation,” Los Angeles Times, Feb 4, 2017 (URL: http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-deportations-20170204-story.html); cf. e.g. Heidi Ledford, “Trump’s immigration stance stokes fears for science,” Nature: International Weekly Journal of Science, Apr 5, 2016 (URL: http://www.nature.com/news/trump-s-immigration-stance-stokes-fears-for-science-1.19683; both last accessed: Feb 6, 2016). 85 Michael D. Shear, Nicholas Kulish And Alan Feuer, “Judge Blocks Trump Order on Refugees Amid Chaos and Outcry Worldwide,” New York Times, Jan 28, 2017 (URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/28/us/refugees-detained-at-us- airports-prompting-legal-challenges-to-trumps-immigration-order.html; last accessed: Jan 29, 2017). Cf. Bush’s ’National Security Entry-Exit Registration System’ (Nadeem Muaddi, “The Bush-era Muslim registry failed. Yet the US could be trying it again,” CNN, Dec 22, 2016; URL: http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/18/politics/nseers-muslim-database-qa-trnd/; last accessed; Jan 29, 2017). Sean Spicer of the Trump administration apparently attempted to place blame on the Obama administration for originally proposing a ‘travel restriction’ on the seven countries listed in Trump’s executive order, which is contested and would, indeed, be odd that Trump concurs with Obama on such an issue (see esp. “'This Week' Transcript 1-29- 17: Sean Spicer, Sen. Mitch McConnell, and Robert Gates,” ABC News, Jan 29, 2017, URL: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/week-transcript-29-17-sean-spicer-sen-mitch/story?id=45112815; and Jason Easley, “White House Blames President Obama After Muslim Ban Backfires On Trump,” Politicus USA, Jan 29, 2017; URL: http://www.politicususa.com/2017/01/29/white-house-blames-president-obama-muslim-ban-backfires-trump.html; both last accessed: Jan 29, 2017). 86 Bill Chappell, “Washington State Sues Trump, Seeking A Stay On Immigration Ban,” National/Northwest Public Radio, Jan 31, 2017 (URL: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/01/31/512673743/washington-state-sues-trump-seeking-a- stay-on-immigration-ban); Alexander Burns, “How Washington State Upended Trump’s Travel Ban,” Feb 4, 2017 (URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/04/us/trump-travel-ban-washington-seattle-ferguson.html?_r=0); “State of Washington vs. Trump,” United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, Order No. 17-35105, D.C. No. 2:17-cv-00141, Feb 9, 2017 (URL: http://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2017/02/09/17-35105.pdf; and Laura Jarrett, “Setback for Trump: Appeals court rejects demand to resume travel ban -- for now,” CNN, Feb 5, 2017 (URL: http://www.cnn.com/2017/02/04/politics/doj-appeals-travel-ban-ruling/; all last accessed: Feb 5, 2017). 87 “Executive Order Protecting The Nation From Foreign Terrorist Entry Into The United States,” The White House, Office of the Press Secretary, Mar 6, 2017 (URL: https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2017/03/06/executive-order- protecting-nation-foreign-terrorist-entry-united-states). See also: Glenn Thrush, “Trump’s New Travel Ban Blocks Migrants From Six Nations, Sparing Iraq,” New York Times, Mar 6, 2017 (URL: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/us/politics/travel-ban-muslim-trump.html?_r=0; both last accessed: Mar 8, 2017). 88 See esp. Paul Spickard, ed., Race and Immigration in the United States: New Histories (New York and London: Routledge, 2012) and Donna R. Gabaccia and Vicki L. Ruiz, eds., American Dreaming, Global Realities: Rethinking U.S. Immigration History (Urbana and Chicago, IL: University of Illiniois Press, 2006); cf. also Henry S. Commager, ed., Immigration and American History: Essays in Honor of Theodore C. Blegen (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1961). 89 An Immigrant Nation: United States Regulation of Immigration, 1798-1991 (U.S. Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Services, 1991), p. 9. 90 Cf. the “Mission” of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), which “seeks to reduce overall immigration to a level…which more closely reflects past policy” (URL: http://www.fairus.org/about; last accessed: May 14, 2017). 91 See Margaret Sands Orchowski, The Law that Changed the Face of America: The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2015); cf. Paul A. Kramer, "Not Who We Are," Slate, Feb 3, 2017 (URL: http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/history/2017/02/trump_s_muslim_ban_and_the_long_history_of_americ an_nativism.html; last accessed: Feb 3, 2017).

92 Marisa Abrajano & Zoltan L. Hajnal, White Backlash: Immigration, Race, and American Politics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017). 93 Christina Prignano, “Media outlets blocked from White House press briefing,” Boston Globe, Feb 24, 2017 (URL: https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2017/02/24/media-outlets-blocked-from-white-house-press- briefing/bk90JskdD2TRG33TMcfeEM/story.html; last accessed: Feb 26, 2017). 94 See esp. John Byrne Cooke, Reporting the War: Freedom of the Press from the American Revolution to the War on Terrorism (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). 95 See esp. Michael Falser, ed., Cultural Heritage as Civilizing Mission: From Decay to Recovery (Switzerland: Springer, 2015); cf. Harald Fischer-Tiné and Michael Mann, eds., Colonialism as Civilizing Mission: Cultural Ideology in British India (London: Anthem Press, 2004); Waibinte E. Wariboko, Race and the Civilizing Mission: Their Implications for the Framing of Blackness and African Personhood (Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2010); Tunde Adeleke, UnAfrican Americans: Nineteenth-Century Black Nationalists and the Civilizing Mission (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 1998); Osama Abi-Mershed, Apostles of Modernity: Saint- Simonians and the Civilizing Mission in Algeria (Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 2010); and Robin Okey, Taming Balkan Nationalism: The Habsburg 'Civilizing Mission' in Bosnia 1878-1914 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007). 96 See esp. Ralph Henry Gabriel, Elias Boudinot: Cherokee and His America (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1941); George Adams Boyd, Elias Boudinot: Patriot and Statesman, 1740-1821 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1952); Raymond Wilson, Ohiyesa: Charles Eastman, Santee Sioux (Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1983); on Shokan Ualihanov in comparative relation to Elias Boudinot, see R. Charles Weller, “‘Orientalist’ Frames of Study? Russo-British Relations, ‘the Great Powers’, and ‘Decadent Oriental States’,” in “Review of The Great Game, 1856-1907: Russo-British Relations in Central and East Asia,” on Reviews in History (www.history.ac.uk/reviews/review/1611); cf. Steven Sabol, "The Touch of Civilization": Comparing American and Russian Internal Colonization (Boulder, CO: University Press of Colorado, 2017). Note that these figures all criticized aspects of ‘Western Civilization’ as well, especially in their later years, with some even later (allegedly) regretting and dissociating themselves from it. 97 Ainslie T. Embree and Carol Gluck, eds., Columbia Project on Asia in the Core Curriculum: Asia in Western and World History: A Guide for Teaching (Armonk, NY and London, England: M.E. Sharpe, 1997). 98 Nayef R. F. Al-Rodhan, ed., The Role of the Arab-Islamic World in the Rise of the West: Implications for Contemporary Trans-Cultural Relations (Hampshire, Basingstoke: Palgrave-Macmillan, 2012). 99 Rodney Stark, The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism and Western Success (New York: Random House, 2005); How the West Won: The Neglected Story of the Triumph of Modernity (Wilmington, DE: Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2014). J. M. Roberts would, likewise, seem to be among those who associate Christianity in some special way with “the European tradition.” Thus he reasons that: “Female liberation, indeed, has taken a long time to come as far as it has done in western countries. Christianity had from the start a fundamental (even if at first sight barely visible) bias towards the improvement of the lot of women, because it took for granted that they, like men, had souls of infinite value in the eyes of God. On this was to be built the modern freedom of women in societies in the Christian tradition” (A History of the World, p. 918). 100 Thomas E. Woods, Jr., How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization (Washington D.C.: Regnery History, 2005) 101 Abdulaziz Sachedina, The Islamic Roots of Democratic Pluralism (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).