This book is a study of the interaction of the Western societies of Europe and America with others around the world in the past two centuries - the age of European empire. It deals with the European threat and the non-Western response, but the focus is on the ways in which people in Asia, Africa, and Indian America have tried to adapt their ways of life to the overwhelming European power that existed in this period. The challenge and the response are presented through a series of selected and widely scattered case studies. They vary from those of the Maya and Yaqui of Mexico, to millennial responses as varied as the Ghost Dance or the cargo cults of Melanesia, as well as those of major players like the Ottoman Empire and Meiji Japan.

‘Informed, wide-ranging, illumined with case studies rather than blinding generalities, wise rather than ideological, relentlessly fascinating - world and comparative history come to maturity.’

Alfred W. Crosby Source: author of Ecological Imperialism

‘Philip Curtin is one of the ablest, most prolific storytellers of our time.’

Mark D. W. Edington Source: The Boston Book Review

‘Following the tradition of those who examine challenge and response in history, he identifies cultures which reacted uniquely to European encroachment, therefore providing the reader with delightful as well as informative vignettes of these distinctive responses.’

Source: Millennium

‘… wide ranging and generally exciting history of imperialism and its opponents … provides a well-written overview of the engagement of the west with the non-west over the past century. it will serve well as a textbook … for a course in the general history of the non-western world or a modern world history course. its clarity and elegance, and the insights that his case studies provide, will make it an excellent teaching text.’

Source: Journal of African History

‘There is much of interest in this wide-ranging and erudite study …’.

Source: The Guardian