I recently read an article by Kwame Anthony Appiah (who, it should be noted, is a very eminent philosopher but not a historian), in which he argues that the concept of 'Western Civilization' as some unified heritage reaching from the Greeks to contemporary Europe and America is a fairly recent construction. For example, he writes:
It will help to recognise that the term “western culture” is surprisingly modern – more recent certainly than the phonograph. Tylor never spoke of it. And indeed he had no reason to, since he was profoundly aware of the internal cultural diversity even of his own country. In 1871 he reported evidence of witchcraft in rural Somerset. A blast of wind in a pub had blown some roasted onions stabbed with pins out of the chimney. “One,” Tylor wrote, “had on it the name of a brother magistrate of mine, whom the wizard, who was the alehouse-keeper, held in particular hatred ... and whom apparently he designed to get rid of by stabbing and roasting an onion representing him.” Primitive culture, indeed.
So the very idea of the “west,” to name a heritage and object of study, doesn’t really emerge until the 1890s, during a heated era of imperialism, and gains broader currency only in the 20th century.
How accurate is the claim that the concept of Western Civilization was only constructed recently, and how accurate is the claim that this process was tied to imperialism/colonization?
Also, please recommend any important books on this subject, as it's one I'd love to dive into further!
Western Civilization is a recent construct that is mostly accurate except when it comes to the areas it applies to. I'll go over the Political, Religious, and Geographic areas but the actual Western Civilization was apart of the Western Roman Empire, influenced by the Western Roman Empire, or Roman Catholic. The whole point being they inherited aspects of the Western Roman Empire but not aspects of the longer lasting Eastern Roman Empire.
Let's start with a civilization which is not a Western Civilization that people claim is and why they think that. This civilization is Ancient Greece, and in general the Hellenistic world. This is the birth place of democracy but it is not the democratic structure many western countries use today, which is based off the Romans. The Greeks had city-states and had to be forced to unite under a common Greek identity (Eastern Roman Empire, Alexander, the Persian War, etc.). As opposed to the Romans which united the cities and had a democratic system on a regional and state level. The Hellenistic world very rarely expanded westward, one can argue that Alexander didn't conquer as much of the west compared to the east (the Persia, Judea, etc.) because nothing of worth was in the west yet. However, we can see that after the Western Roman Empire fell most Byzantine Emperors did not bother with the west (although one or two tried to reclaim Western Roman territory immediately after the Western Roman Empire fell), their main focus was holding their land in the East, like Egypt, Judea, Persia, Anatolia, etc. Notice they did not call a crusade to claim Bulgar land, or Pontic land, but for the land they lost in the East like Judea. Even today most Greeks would celebrate the re-Hellenization of Istanbul (Byzantium) than parts of Sicily and France. If you want more proof, look at the countries that aided Byzantium against the Ottomans and other kaliphates excluding crusades, it was mainly ignored because it was not western and therefore not important.
Yet people claim Greece was the cradle of Western civilization, in reality that was the Romans. Roman Catholicism gave rise to Protestantism, The Western Roman Empire gave rise to Republics, Emperors (like the Kaisar), and literally the entire legal system (Latin is still used even in America for legal jargon). Greek was apart of the Western Roman Empire but it was studied and borrowed from therefore influencing it. However if you want more proof, look at the Renaissance; which was started when the Byzantine scholars migrated west after Constantinople was sacked by Crusaders. Keep in mind that all of the "knowledge that had been lost by the Romans" was introduced by, well the Romans (or the Eastern ones) who always had this knowledge. This alone is proof enough that shows the disconnect between Western Civilization and what people call "Western Civilization". It showed there was little contact nor consideration for Byzantium. To this day Greece is more Eastern in culture and ties than The West.