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7
Beyond Orientalism
Explaining Other Worlds
Despite its spectacular achievements, civilization fell far short of living up to
its global pretensions. In 1869, John Fiske pointed out that civilized communities,
chiefly Euro- American societies, constituted only “a numerical minority
of mankind.” Another writer reminded his readers that civilization “does not
embrace all the nations of the earth; nor does it carry onward and upward with
equal steps all that are within its area.” This numerical asymmetry prompted
a wide- ranging discussion in the periodical literature about the future of the
world’s nonindustrialized populations that differed in some fundamental respects
from the debate about the future of non- Caucasian minorities at home.
Although assimilation was the dominant theme domestically, it was not possible
to think about non- Western societies in the same way. Some peoples would
undoubtedly be inundated by the tidal wave of globalization, but only a few
“superficial thinkers” were counting on the rapid dissolution of age- old Islamic
and Asian societies. For the foreseeable future, the emerging global civilization
would have to contend with the survivability, re sis tance, and capacity
for learning and adaptation of many long- lived societal groupings with deep
civilizational roots of their own. Expectations of how these other worlds would
fare in the encounter among civilizations, and the reasons for their likely success
or failure, varied enormously. 1
The Problem of Islamic Antimodernism
America’s modest commercial, cultural, and po liti cal ties with Muslim lands
did not prevent American journals from displaying a high degree of curiosity
about Islamic civilization. The Eastern Question, the future of Egypt and
Africa, the relationship between Hindus and Muslims in India, the Great