Eastern Europe through the eyes of the West. In Krytyka, No. 2, 1997, pp. 4-5.

The material is a translation of an article by Norman Davies. According to the author, Western academic discourse is dominated by “scientific Orientalism” – an exoticized view of Eastern Europe that is similar to the attitude towards the Eastern countries. The article examines the path of popularization of the concept of Western civilization. Particular attention is paid to the educational reform in the United States, initiated by George Adler in 1921. Designed to unify basic humanities knowledge, it led to the creation of a Western literary canon, where the works of Eastern European authors were relegated to the margins. The author sees the civil rights movements of the 1960s as a reaction to the propaganda-driven official interpretation of history. He empasises the influence of the Iron Curtain on the intensification of the divide between the West and Eastern Europe.