Sophie Bessis was born and brought up in Tunisia and has subsequently spent most of her adult life living and working in France. A writer and journalist, she has held a number of important editorial and other posts, including head of research and subsequently editor in chief of Jeune Afrique; director of the Panos Institute in Paris; and editor of Vivre Autrement, which was published by ENDA at the major UN world summits since 1992.

She is the author of a number of books over the past twenty years, including inter alia:

L'Arme Alimentaire, Maspero, 1979: revised edition 1983
La DerniSre FrontiSre: Les tiers mondes et la tentations de l'Occident, J C Lattes, 1983
La faim dans le monde, La Decouverte, 1991
Femmes du Maghreb: l'Enjeu (with Souhayr Belhassen), JC Lattes, 1992
Femmes de Mediterrane, Karthala, 1995
La fin du tiers monde?, coauthored, La Decouverte, 1996
L'Occident et les autres: Histoire d'une suprematie, La Decouverte, 2001.

Forword to the English edition
Introduction
Part I: The Formation of a Culture
1. The West Is Born
2. Light and Shadow of the Enlightenment
3. The Roots of a Conviction
4. Continuity beneath Wrenching Changes
5. The Backlash

Part II: The Way of the World
6. The Great Post-Colonial Illusion
7. The New Basis of Hegemony
8. The Privileges of Power
9. Beginning of the End?

Part III: The Two Sides of the Mirror
10. The New Look of Universality
11. The Same and the Others
12. On the Other Side of the Mirror

Conclusion