Book ReviewInventing Eastern Europe: the map of civilization on the mind of the Enlightenment
Book Review: Inventing Eastern Europe: the map of civilization on the mind of the Enlightenment
The author of this book, Larry Wolff shows through various sources such as accounts from 18th century travellers to eastern Europe, maps and atlases from the 18th century, how and why Western Europeans created the idea and separation of an Eastern Europe and how they came to view Eastern Europe as a place so uncivilized, backward and barbarian that it could not be classified under the same continent as Western Europe.
Although this book was published in 1994, the interest in this topic has not gone away as there have been books published much more recently discussing this topic or one of similar note. A book published in 2011, by the author Gale Stokes; Collapse and Rebirth in Eastern Europe (Second Edition), also discusses the idea of Eastern Europe and the Soviet satellites under Soviet rule. Another book, published in 2012; Anne Applebaum’s Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956, examines the concept of Eastern Europe and the damaging effects that caused this area of Europe to be perceived with such distasteful thoughts as a result of Churchill’s casting of the Iron Curtain.
This book is monographic although it does include accounts from other travellers that visited Eastern Europe and views of philosophers on the area. It covers the 18th century; the age of Enlightenment. The author takes the approach that it was philosophers at the time that created the view of Eastern Europe and the view was one based on culture and tradition. Wolff explains that the philosophers based their views on the civilisation of Paris and were determined to make Eastern Europe appear as backward, uncultured and barbaric so as to promote Western Europe’s culture as much more superior to Eastern Europe.
The book is structured into seven different chapters, chapters one to four each discussing a different aspect of the topic and both five and six, and seven and eight
The author of this book, Larry Wolff shows through various sources such as accounts from 18th century travellers to eastern Europe, maps and atlases from the 18th century, how and why Western Europeans created the idea and separation of an Eastern Europe and how they came to view Eastern Europe as a place so uncivilized, backward and barbarian that it could not be classified under the same continent as Western Europe.
Although this book was published in 1994, the interest in this topic has not gone away as there have been books published much more recently discussing this topic or one of similar note. A book published in 2011, by the author Gale Stokes; Collapse and Rebirth in Eastern Europe (Second Edition), also discusses the idea of Eastern Europe and the Soviet satellites under Soviet rule. Another book, published in 2012; Anne Applebaum’s Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944-1956, examines the concept of Eastern Europe and the damaging effects that caused this area of Europe to be perceived with such distasteful thoughts as a result of Churchill’s casting of the Iron Curtain.
This book is monographic although it does include accounts from other travellers that visited Eastern Europe and views of philosophers on the area. It covers the 18th century; the age of Enlightenment. The author takes the approach that it was philosophers at the time that created the view of Eastern Europe and the view was one based on culture and tradition. Wolff explains that the philosophers based their views on the civilisation of Paris and were determined to make Eastern Europe appear as backward, uncultured and barbaric so as to promote Western Europe’s culture as much more superior to Eastern Europe.
The book is structured into seven different chapters, chapters one to four each discussing a different aspect of the topic and both five and six, and seven and eight