- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: STEERFORTH PRESS; 1 edition (Nov 20 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 158642033X
- ISBN-13: 978-1586420338
- Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.3 x 1.5 cm
- Shipping Weight: 295 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #1,598,345 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
KISHORE MAHBUBANI has been hailed as "an Asian Toynbee, preoccupied with the rise and fall of civilizations" (The Economist), a "Max Weber of the new 'Confucian ethic'" (Washington Post), and "a prototype twenty-first century leader" (Time). A must-read for anyone with even a passing interest in contemporary Asia, this collection of provocative essays is certain to challenge the way you think.
Asia's societies were more culturally and economically advanced than Europe's at the end of the first millennium. And yet by the nineteenth century the West had leaped so far ahead that even some Asians themselves harbored images of inferiority.
Mahbubani's analysis of the past and predictions for the future amount to a wake-up call to Asians and Westerners alike. In diverse pieces such as "The Ten Commandments for Developing Countries" and "The Dangers of Decadence: What the Rest Can Teach the West," he asserts that Westerners are largely unaware of their condescending attitudes and practices toward the East and maintain that outdated worldview at their own peril - Asia's economies are poised to surpass those of Europe and North America within the next fifty years. No one who reads these iconoclastic, unabashed arguments will ever regard East-West relations in the same light.
“If you are looking for insight into how others perceive us—and the events of September 11 underscore that need—then I know of no better guide than Kishore Mahbubani. His collection of lively essays will both inform and challenge your thinking.”
-- Paul Volcker
“This book is a collection of absolutely first-rate essays, elegantly written. . . . Mahbubani has an instinct for the jugular when it comes to identifying a critical issue and setting forth a powerful thesis concerning it.”
-- Samuel P. Huntington
Author of The Clash of Civilizations
“Interesting, provocative, and intellectually engaging.”
-- Henry Kissinger
Asia's societies were more culturally and economically advanced than Europe's at the end of the first millennium. And yet by the nineteenth century the West had leaped so far ahead that even some Asians themselves harbored images of inferiority.
Mahbubani's analysis of the past and predictions for the future amount to a wake-up call to Asians and Westerners alike. In diverse pieces such as "The Ten Commandments for Developing Countries" and "The Dangers of Decadence: What the Rest Can Teach the West," he asserts that Westerners are largely unaware of their condescending attitudes and practices toward the East and maintain that outdated worldview at their own peril - Asia's economies are poised to surpass those of Europe and North America within the next fifty years. No one who reads these iconoclastic, unabashed arguments will ever regard East-West relations in the same light.
“If you are looking for insight into how others perceive us—and the events of September 11 underscore that need—then I know of no better guide than Kishore Mahbubani. His collection of lively essays will both inform and challenge your thinking.”
-- Paul Volcker
“This book is a collection of absolutely first-rate essays, elegantly written. . . . Mahbubani has an instinct for the jugular when it comes to identifying a critical issue and setting forth a powerful thesis concerning it.”
-- Samuel P. Huntington
Author of The Clash of Civilizations
“Interesting, provocative, and intellectually engaging.”
-- Henry Kissinger
About the Author
KISHORE MAHBUBANI, a career diplomat, is a native of Singapore. He has been a fellow at Harvard University's Center for International Affairs and served diplomatic assignments in Cambodia, Malaysia, and Canada. He is currently serving his second separate term as his country's ambassador to the United Nations. He lives in New York with his wife and three children.
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fresh point of view!,
By A Customer
This review is from: Can Asians Think?: Understanding The Divide Between East And West (Paperback)
Always stuck with what you think of how the West thinks about the world?Need new ideas, new perspectives? Want to know what non westerners might think and desire about how this world should and could evolve? An absolute requirement for those wanting to broaden views, learn and realize that there's more in this world than just the West. There's also the Rest
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read this book and climb out of the PC rut,
By
This review is from: Can Asians Think?: Understanding The Divide Between East And West (Paperback)
First of all, the brouhaha over the title simply proves the author's point: Asians and Westerners view things differently.If you care at all about the world, READ THIS BOOK. Really, it's OK. Just treat it like one of those trashy novels whose cover you need to hide in public. It's really worth it. As an impressionable youngster I was brought up to believe that what worked for me as a kid was best for the world: a single-family home in a semi-rural setting, public schools, democracy, free speech, and so on. It took my first visits overseas to appreciate that people can really flourish in apartment dwellings. It's taken Mahbubani's book to make me realize that today's free speech and universal franchise may have been the RESULT and not the CAUSE of American middle-class prosperity. Mahbubani's views have vital implications regarding aid to developing countries. We've seen in the news how elections by themselves have failed to stabilize unstable countries. He also has some very ripe comments about the Western press, which no doubt explains why the book is so rarely reviewed. He argues that the press is an unchecked power both overseas and within the US -- imagine if a tinpot dictator refused to talk to the American press? Unheard of! Mahbubani believes that the public should demand the same level of integrity from their journalists that they expect of their politicians. Yet it's rare that journalists are raked over the coals for being bribed by corporations (just about every major journalist seems to have spent time on Enron's payroll as a "consultant") or for marital infidelity. Washington journalists are very good at casting the first stone when some politician is caught with his pants down, but it's rare for someone to question a journalist's integrity based on outside infidelities. Given how "access" equals "power" in Washington, Mahbubani argues that the press represents a large power bloc within the US that is largely unchecked with respect to integrity. While I find this statement a bit extreme, there is some truth to it. Some people see Mahbubani as an apologist for the Singaporean government. It's true that his words make their government more palatable to Westerners. But it's important to consider his words, regardless of whether he's an apologist or not. Intellectuals listened to numerous fools extolling the virtues of Stalin in the '30s. Let us give this fellow a hearing, at least. Is Mahbubani "right" or "wrong" ?? I don't know. But he provides some incredibly thought-provoking essays based on a lifetime of foreign service.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Insights,
By Colin Ong TS (Singapore) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Can Asians Think?: Understanding The Divide Between East And West (Paperback)
I will like to congratulate Kishore in approaching this subject in a very thorough and balanced manner. It is very readable and should be recommended reading for all students who intend to further their studies in Asia. Executives who are posted to Asia can take heart that the mindset and thinking of Asians will not be a great "mystery" after reading this book.Good work.
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