Modernity and Culture

Between the 1890s and 1920s, cities in the vast region stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean were experiencing political, social, economic, and cultural changes that had been set in motion at least since the early nineteenth century. Avoiding such dichotomies as East/West and modernity/tradition, this book provides a comparative analysis of contested versions of the concept of modernity, examining not only the "high" culture of scholars and the literati, but also popular music, the visual arts, and journalism.

Between the 1890s and 1920s, cities in the vast region stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean were experiencing political, social, economic, and cultural changes that had been set in motion at least since the early nineteenth century. As the age of pre-colonial empires gave way to colonial and national states, there was a sense that a particular liberalism of culture and economy had been irretrievably lost to a more intolerant age.

Avoiding such dichotomies as East/West and modernity/tradition, this book provides a comparative analysis of contested versions of the concept of modernity. The book examines not only the "high" culture of scholars and the literati, but also popular music, the visual arts, and journalism. The contributors incorporate discussion of the way in which the business in both commodities and ideas was conducted in the increasingly cosmopolitan cities of the time.

Leila Tarazi Fawaz is a professor of history in the School of Arts and Sciences and a professor of diplomacy at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, both at Tufts University.

C. A. Bayly is professor of history at Cambridge University and fellow of St. Catharine's College.

Svetla Ianeva:
With its complex approach to the problems under study and its innovative interpretations, this collection represents an important stimulus.

The totality of the essays in Modernity & Culture validate the need for cross-regional analysis.

Jennifer Derr:
The contributors to Modernity and Culture capture many of the important trends that shaped the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean worlds during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Ulrike Freitag:
This book can be regarded as a landmark achievement in expanding the scope of historical studies... It will provide a most valuable starting point for a new type of comparative studies.

Frank F. Conlon:
The volume is a major contribution to the growing field of comparative history...Modernity and Culture, although focused on the Middle East and South Asia, will be of broad interest to students and teachers of world history for its explicit content and the stimulation it provides toward fresh conceptions and presentations of two major world regions in a global context.

The guiding vision behind this collection is profound, and the overall quality of the articles is excellent.