Wall of text time.
I hope the conversation below can supplement above explanation:
Unfortunately it can't because it's sensationalist pseudohistory written for commercial purposes and intended for anglo audiences and dependent on the ignorance of the broader world that characterizes said anglo audiences.
The best way to peddle sales is to hit controversy with a pivot point in the middle of things that people seeking controversy know and understand. Hence the world is either black and white or white and black. It's never something in between because that's not controversial enough and it's never blue and grey because that's too unfamiliar. Either it's the white man's burden or the white man has no culture. Neoconservative Evangelicals or Social Justice Warriors.
That's not history. That's a mental illness.
Anglos are not "the West". The Anglos didn't exist until the Elizabethan era. Even the language was different before the emergence of early modern English and the vowel shift. Before the emergence of early modern English the elites spoke French and Latin and the commonry spoke Old English which was a German-like language and Celtic. Britain didn't matter on a global scale until the established powers of the time - Spain, Portugal, Netherlands and France - bled themselves during the succession wars in 18th century. Only then - much like Americans during the World Wars - do the Anglos enter the scene and begin to play as equals and ultimately dominate the game because of their relative starting position and advantages in geography.
When the Spanish tried to crush the English with the Great Armada it was not because the English were seen as a threat - the way China is perceived by America today - but because they were seen as troublesome pests - like the Greeks to the Persians. And they were ignored as irrelevant and not worth the effort as soon as a major defeat provided the excuse to never waste resources on Phyrric victories. That's what happened during the Persian invasion of Greece but what do we remember of that? Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis. Certainly not the Peloponnesian war that was funded by Persia on both sides. Certainly there's no equivalent of that happening in the 17th century in England.. oh wait...
Even if you want to make the erroneous claim that "the West" is defined by colonial empires and maritime economy then the European maritime empires grew out of Mediterranean maritime empires and Hansa and those grew out of Roman, Byzantine, Greek and Carthaginian maritime empires which grew out of Bronze Age maritime empires of Crete, Phoenicia and Egypt. Then there are the extensive land and sea trade routes that existed in pre-Roman and pre-Celtic Europe during the Bronze Age which constituted a very "globalized" network of trade and culture. Egyptian pharaohs were sending their daughters to chiefs of Northern and Western European tribes to secure access to resources. Historians found genetic evidence matching historical records from Egypt of one such marriage taking place in Ireland!
If you want a book - try Eric Cline's "1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed" which is an attempt to present the state of the global economy in the Bronze Age Middle East written by an archeologist who writes about history, not his political interpretation of it. Once you read it - or listen to a lecture by the author of which there are several on youtube - you see that any notion that "the West" emerges from virgin birth whether through divine intervention as the Anglo protestants see it, or through some kind of egregious sin as the New Left sees it, is just false.
"The West" is what happens when an established civilization shifts with resources and changing climate slightly to the northwest.
When Elizabeth I begins the age of Anglo delusion the "West" has existed for over fifteen hundred years.
If anything the "Western" cultures in first Britain and then later America are created by rejection of the West as it exists in the Old World. At least in Europe you can meaningfully say that you are the "West". There's a sea at one end. How can you know if you are the West in America?
In Europe "the West" is a cultural continuity that lasts beyond whatever political regime establishes itself over these networks and forces everyone to learn their version of history as means of legitimizing their rule. In America - and that is increasingly the cultural influence re-defining how the rest of Anglosphere sees it - there's nothing except for the bullshit that a preacher spews to get donors to his church.
Sometimes the propaganda is borderline farcical in its self-contradiction. Like when Romans extoll virtues of "Greek" civilization that conquered Persia but at the same time invade Greece under the guise of protecting Greeks from the Macedonian oppression which was precisely the civilization that conquered Persia... after being a Persian vassal for centuries.
Are you getting the Global War on Terror vibes from it like I do?
Anyone who wants to simply the history of the world to West and China must ignore the role of Central Asia and the Middle East which were a very different place in the past - not because of climate shift (partly due to human exploitation of the environment) but also because of how overland and littoral trade routes influenced growth of societies.
When you study the ancient civilizations of Elam and Indus you tend to encounter a surprising number of references to long-distance trade. Where did this trade come from? Does anyone really think that it was much harder to cross Asia in 10th century AD than it was in 15th century BC?
And don't get me started on how every single John Hobson peddling their revolutionary book on how the world really works conveniently ignores the Persians. You know, the world's first empire that at the same time managed to maintain a society almost devoid of slavery and with a system of personal rights? The Persians lasted for only... over a thousand years (6 century BC to 7th century AD ) and then managed to overcome conquests first by the barbarian Alexander and then by the Rashidun Caliphate after which they returned to prominence as Abbassid Caliphate until the Mongols destroyed everything. Even the Abbassid capital of Baghdad was established not far from the old imperial capital of Ctesiphon.
It is only after the Persians fall and are replaced by Turkic invaders (Mongols, Timurids, Ottomans etc) who are like the Barbarians in Roma history that the trade routes are shut off and the economic incentive for Europeans to seek maritime routes appears. Ancient Rome had contact with Han China and the Silk Road went through Persia. And it continued like that for over a thousand years.
And let's not forget that you can buy the compass but you have to learn the language. China is hampered tremendously because it has the world's worst major language system and the West succeeds beyond its natural capacity because it has the best. We'd be all speaking Chinese now if it wasn't for those pesky tones and logograms. Literacy was nonexistent until a great effort from the government was put into both forcibly educating people and simplifying the alphabet. The Indians are just one step away with their languages. And how do the Westerners get their language?
From the Phoenicians and Greeks who needed something very flexible and very efficient to record trade with multiple culturally and linguistically distinct cultures in the region.
I bet John Hobson never thought of that in explaining the relative weakness of the West vs the colonized cultures of the East.
The best way is to learn what the book is really about is to turn the book upside down. Learn another language and read history in another language. This is why real historians study primary sources. Otherwise you never leave the realm of manipulation and propaganda manufactured by people like this guy so they can get their five minutes of fame.