History and Decolonization: Essays from Southern Europe

History and Decolonization: Essays from Southern Europe takes a fresh approach to world history by integrating the historical experience of Southern Europe into debates on colonialism, racism and patriarchy. To approach Europe from its southern fringes can open new perspectives on cultural decolonization and Eurocentrism; here, author Javier García Fernández focuses on the history of Al-Andalus (in present-day Spain) as a prism for re-interpreting European history along non-Western lines. In pursuit of a postcolonial horizon so important for the field of social sciences in southern Europe, this argument is set against discussion of international hierarchies of power, including contemporary imperialism and neoliberal globalization. This is an important and innovative book. Its fundamental thesis is that, while we need a Europe that looks and listens to the Global South, we also need a South within Europe in order to transform it.