The Empire of Civilization was prompted by a series of recent calls for new standards of civilization to help us add order to our sometimes chaotic world. Influential advocates have outlined a range of perceived benefits this might bring for the global human condition. But they have given little consideration to the downsides of such a course of action. This oversight is particularly disconcerting given that the language of civilization comes with so much baggage. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the subsequent launch of the global war on terror—a war that the most powerful man in the world at the time, United States President George W. Bush, saw as a “fight for civilization”—occurred around the same time as some of these calls. The invoking of civilization in this context was cause for even greater concern, and not just because the language of civilization comes with baggage. It is also cause for concern because the actions that all too often follow the language of civilization are anything but civilized. These two not-unrelated developments—one born of the world of academia and ideas, the other emerging straight out of the “real world” of global politics— reminded me of Albert Camus’ warning in The Plague, that much of the evil in the world comes about “out of ignorance, and good intentions may do as much harm as malevolence, if they lack understanding.” With that in mind, The Empire of Civilization is, in part at least, about advancing understanding. It is about having a better understanding of the language of civilization and a better understanding of the actions that tend to follow the use of the language of civilization.

In seeking understanding, the book engages with a wide range of interconnected ideas and events across a vast expanse of time and space, from the Crusades in the eleventh century to the discovery of the New World to the global war on terror. It cautiously navigates this long and sometimes treacherous path in light of the eighteenth-century German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder’s suggestion that the present is pregnant with the past. In order that we can understand and make sense of the present, we must have an adequate understanding of our history. This in turn offers the hope not only of being better prepared for what the future may hold in store, but it also helps us actively to shape the future in a thoughtful way.