- Historic Sites Connecting With Eastern Europe Americans have
always sympathized with the Eastern European countries in their
struggles for democracy, but for two centuries we haven’t been
able to help much. Do we have a chance now? A distinguished
expatriate looks at the odds. November 1990 | Volume 41, Issue 7
Even in these days of nine-hour airplane journeys and instant
telephony, the United States and Eastern Europe are very far
apart. When it comes to the places and shapes of nations and
states east of Germany and west of Russia, there occurs in the
eyes of most Americans an instant blur. There are obvious
reasons for this. One of them is the plain reality of
perspective. When Americans look across the Atlantic, the shapes
of the British Isles, of France, of Scandinavia, of the Iberian
and Italian peninsulas are recognizable and familiar, even in
these times of a scandalously neglected education in geography.
But this is not only a matter of shapes. The states of Western
and Northern and Southern Europe