The term “history” is often used as a synonym for a particular, retrospectively constructed, genealogy of the West, “according to which ancient Greece begat Rome, Rome begat Christian Europe, Christian Europe begat the Renaissance, the Renaissance the Enlightenment, the Enlightenment political democracy and the industrial revolution. Industry, crossed with democracy, in turn yielded the United States, embodying the right to life, and the pursuit of happiness.
Eric Wolf, Europe and the People Without History, Berkeley: Univ. of Caligfrnia Press, 1982, 5
Literature and the Tortoise 
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