The Essay

Eva Hoffman is a Polish Jew who came to Britain in 1992, having spent most of her adult life in the United States. What she found confounded her prejudices of a stodgy, emotionally closed and uncommunicative culture. But she also found a society in a state of rapid flux, a culture which seemed unsure of the balance to strike between absorbing outside influence and maintaining traditional values. Eva reflects on how we should handle this crisis of confidence.