RUIN AND RENEWAL:

Kenneth Clark and Mary Beard both presented television programmes entitled "Civilisation", 50 years apart, and both admitted the difficulty of defining what the term actually means. The author of this book, which examines the concept as it has played out in Europe since World War II, comments that "civilisation" is most often invoked at times of cultural and moral breakdown, for instance at the end of the War or after 9/11. Unlike the 19th century missionary approach to civilisation, the post-war understanding was shaped by insecurity and the daunting task of starting over. Disillusionment with western values prompted curiosity about other civilisations, and the birth of the United Nations immediately after the war was an ambitious experiment in internationalism. The New York Post went so far as to call it "the most important human gathering since the Last Supper", representing as it did a transition to the language of individual rights and collective security. The author discusses the effect of the loss of empire in western and eastern Europe, Africa, and the Soviet Union, and the consequent repurposing of the concept of civilisation for political ends. An example is the way Eastern Europeans have championed the preservation of indigenous Third World traditions in the name of anti-imperialism and international fellowship. The material the author uses includes interviews and telling cultural artefacts such as west German guide books about how to behave in different situations, and he does not hesitate to challenge the narrative of the EU being a peacekeeping response to racial arrogance and totalitarianism. 536pp, black and white photos.