Description: In this engaging and provocative book, which ranges effortlessly between the fields of sociology, political science, philosophy, cultural anthropology, and literature, Cassano offers a critique of normative models of modernization derived from Eurocentric and North Atlantic paradigms, while claiming that autonomous paths to modernity exist in the Mediterranean and the so-called Global Souths.Cassano's rethinking of the South seeks to reverse the North-South relationship: not to think of the South in light of modernity, but rather to think of modernity in light of the South.In this work, the South is no longer a belated, imperfect, incomplete, and not-yet North but the space of a differential, autonomous identity to be recovered and rediscovered. Thus, Southern Thought not only exemplifies a brilliant critique of Occidentalism but represents a valiant attempt to restore agency and dignity to the heritage and legacies of Southerncivilizations and cultures. Four additional essays supplement this English translation of the original Italian book.
Brief description: Franco Cassano, is Professor of Sociology in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Bari.
Review Quotes: This volume fills an important gap in the bibliography of Mediterranean Studies, whose importance is increasing continuously, by providing convenient access, to an English-speaking audience, the work of one of this field's pioneers, the Italian Franco Cassano. At least partially to Cassano's credit, the prominence and relevance of the Mediterranean --etymologically the "center of the earth" or at least of classic European civilization and, through the centuries the crossroads of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian civilizations -- recently has become the object of serious interdisciplinary inquiry. The relevance of this area of study, necessary in a time characterized by the blurred boundaries, geographic and disciplinary, of a period perhaps best described as one of political, sociological, and economic "globalization," cannot be overstated. This book responds to the the need, perceived by senior scholars and undergraduates alike, to transcend specializations and begin to look at the cross-fertilizations of cultures that have existed for centuries.-----Joseph Francese, Michigan State University