Where in the Continent is the Heart of Europe?

Where in the Continent is the Heart of Europe? May 11, 2015

We'll be talking about a different heart today, but maybe not entirely? (Jose de Paez, Sacred Heart of Jesus with Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Saint Louis Gonzaga, circa 1770; Wikimedia Commons, PD-Old-100)
We’ll be talking about a different heart today, but maybe not entirely? (Jose de Paez, Sacred Heart of Jesus with Saint Ignatius of Loyola and Saint Louis Gonzaga, circa 1770; Wikimedia Commons, PD-Old-100)

Obsessively discussing the demise of Europe is one of the favorite preoccupations of those on the American far right. For them Europe is the heartless technocracy that they don’t want in America. Whether is accurate is neither here nor there. Nor will we go into the heartlessness of America.

Instead we’ll take a look at a video by Norman Davies, the Oxford historian whom we tapped in our discussion of Soviet-Russia’s indispensable role in winning World War II, a victory that undermines the notion of a greatest generation.

The following video is based upon the book Heart of Europe: The Past in Poland’s Present. The title gives away some of the historian’s unique method. The book starts with the Polish present and then progresses back in history to its heart. Sounds weird, but it really works.

Also, here’s the first part of a documentary about Davies’ monumental Europe: A History. In this film Davies and his buddies take a Jeep and drive all over the continent to explore the places he talks about in the book.

You will note that the vision of Poland as the heart of Europe is compatible with the centerlessness (the West was never Western) that Remi Brague argues is at the heart of Europe.

 

 

 

 

 


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