Western Empires. Christianity and the Inequalities between the West and the Rest, 1500-2010, by Sampie Terreblanche

Western Empires. Christianity and the Inequalities between the West and the Rest, 1500-2010, by Sampie Terreblanche. Penguin Random House South Africa, Imprint: Penguin Books. Cape Town, South Africa 2014. ISBN 9780143539070 / ISBN 978-0-14-353907-0

Western Empires. Christianity and the Inequalities between the West and the Rest, 1500-2010 by Sampie Terreblanche, an important contribution to possibly the most important current debate.

Sampie Terreblanche  

Author's Note

I was appointed Professor of Economic History at the University of Stellenbosch (South Africa) in 1968. I have been teaching courses on Economic History and the History of Economic Thought since 1957 - for well over 50 years now. My ideological orientation has always been the social democratic approach of continental Europe as distinct from the narrow liberal and neoclassical approach of the Anglo-American world. South Africa became an independent state when the British Parliament enacted the Statute of Westminster in 1931. But in spite of the independence that was granted to South Africa, the critics of the apartheid system referred to South Africa as representing 'colonialism of a special type'. In an attempt to address this anomaly, I was inclined to emphasise the remarkable similarities between the global macrocosms (Japan excluded) of the First and the Third World, on the one hand, and the South African microcosm during the periods of segregation and apartheid (1910-1994), on the other. The population of the First World, or the core of the global macrocosm, was always less than 20 per cent of the population of the world (Japan excluded). The ethnicity of the inhabitants of the core of the global macrocosm was mainly white or European, and they were more developed and more privileged, as well as more powerful and more wealthy, than the inhabitants living on the global periphery (the Third World). The population of this Third World periphery of the global macrocosm was always more than 75 per cent of the population of the world (Japan excluded). The ethnicity of the inhabitants on the periphery of the global macrocosm was mainly non-white and non-European, and they were less developed and less privileged, as well as less powerful and less wealthy than the inhabitants forming the core of the global macrocosm. The inhabitants on the global periphery were in fact fairly powerless and impoverished. The population of the First World core in the South African microcosm during the periods of segregation and apartheid was always less than 20 per cent of the total population of South Africa. The ethnicity of the inhabitants of the core of the South African microcosm was exclusively white and European, and they were more developed and more privileged, as well as more powerful and more wealthy, than the inhabitants on the South African periphery. The population of the Third world periphery of the South Africa microcosm during the periods of segregation and apartheid was always more than 80 per cent of the total population. The ethnicity of the inhabitants on the periphery of the South African microcosm during this period was exclusively non-white and non-European. The inhabitants on the periphery of the South African microcosm during this period was less developed and less privileged, as well as less powerful and less wealthy, than the inhabitants of the core of the South African microcosm. In fact, the inhabitants of the periphery in the South African microcosm were fairly powerless and impoverished during the period of apartheid. From a qualitative perspective, the similarities between the global macrocosm and the South African microcosm during the period of apartheid were also quite remarkable. In both 'worlds' there were high levels of social injustice and income inequality. [...]

This is an extract from Western Empires. Christianity and the Inequalities between the West and the Rest, 1500-2010 by Sampie Terreblanche.

Title: Western Empires
Subtitle: Christianity and the Inequalities between the West and the Rest, 1500-2010
Author: Sampie Terreblanche
Publisher: Penguin Random House South Africa
Imprint: Penguin Books
Cape Town, South Africa 2014
ISBN 9780143539070 / ISBN 978-0-14-353907-0
EU-Import: Namibiana Buchdepot
Hardcover, dustjacket, 16 x 24 cm, 600 pages