Images of the West: Third World Perspectives - Tapa dura

. . . A well-written and provocative essay that will be of great benefit to readers concerned not only with the West's impact on the Third World, but also the continually evolving forms of responses to this impact by Third World peoples themselves. * Middle East Journal * Gordon brings it all together, sorts out the key issues and adds some carefully couched views of his own. Loaded with references and statements of other scholars, the book will have particular appeal to an academic audience. * Foreign Affairs * . . . makes a well-informed and useful contribution to the understanding of patterns of cultural response and identification in the face of political and economic dependencies. * Development and Change * . . . brilliant and creative. * Journal of World History * This book has to be appreciated for its effort to synthesize a wide range of literature and apply it to the theme of identity formation in the Third World. The issues it raises are worthy of discussion and should be of particular concern to those interested in cultural studies. Gordon goes beyond narrow disciplinary boundaries and draws from an impressive diversity of source materials. His thirty-four-page bibliography is extremely useful. * International Journal of Middle East Studies *

Since the dissolution of the Western empire after World War II, the impact of the West has created a crisis of identity for non-Western, especially Muslim, societies. In this highly informed and readable work, Dr. Gordon reviews the varied responses-political, economic, and psychological-that have resulted from the Western challenge. Whether the West is accepted as a model or rejected as a force for exploitation and alienation, it has played and will continue to play a crucial role in the quest of newly independent nations of the Third World for identification and self-definition.