The Bear in the Room and the Civilizing Process

The History of an Idea and Anthony Pagden's The Pursuit of Europe: A History, arrive amidst significant polemics and much uncertainty.Flattering self-images and sanitized historical narratives of "Europe" and "the West" have come under sustained scrutiny and repeated criticism also "from within" in recent years, yielding sharp contestation of their meanings.How will these two key concepts be understood in a world often described as "multipolar, " one in which Europe has in many ways been "provincialized, " and where efforts at "decentering" have become de rigueur in academic discussions?These are some of the larger stakes of Varouxakis's and Pagden's intellectual-historical explorations.Even as both authors consciously limit their horizons to the "West's West" and to "Europeans' Europe, " their instructive books have much to contribute by way of historicizing and nuancing our discussions.Notwithstanding important differences between them in terms of their main concerns, approaches, and key arguments, a central ambition of both books seems to be the development of empathic perspectives that may also serve as useful antidotes to staunchly critical ones and thereby help launch more open debates about the future.