a synopsis of the book from wiki
Quote:
Europe and the People Without History is a book by anthropologist Eric Wolf. It focuses how the expansion of European societies not only affected those societies that Europeans encountered in their expansion, but also the effect upon those European societies themselves. It asserts that non-European peoples were active participants in the progress of history, rather than static, unchanging cultures. The assumption that these 'others' are from unchanging cultures, and are left out of Eurocentric historical narratives is why they are referred to as 'people without history'. The "People Without History" also refers to those peoples of whom their cultures lack a formally written articulation of their histories hindering their inclusion in 'Western' historical narratives.
as I said I've only read the introduction at this point but thought it was really interesting. Not overly academic at all which is great since this stuff can get dense sometimes. Ya'll should read it!
http://www.scribd.com/doc/40564/Eric-Wolf-Europe-and-the-People-Without-History-introduction
sorry this is the only online version I could find.
