Standard European history excludes whole regions and peoples to preserve an invented homogeneous identity.

Evidence

When Trevor-Roper speaks of “European history” he does not mean narratives about the inhabitants of the European continent, which is why there is nothing in his book about Byzantium and Eastern Europe, or about northwestern Europe (other than brief references to the Viking’s destructiveness), or about Jews (other than as victims), or about Muslim Spain (other than as an intrusive presence). “European history” is the narration of an identity many still derive from “European (or Western) civilization”—a narrative that seeks to represent homogeneous space and linear time. — Talal Asad, Formations of the Secular, 810

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines what ‘European history’ selectively means: a narrative of identity, not a history of the continent’s actual inhabitants.