The Russian public is taking a closer look at the civilizational approach, which promises seemingly new horizons of research after the collapse of the formation paradigm 1. The civilizational approach has become the banner of everything new and progressive. But there are hidden pitfalls in it, sometimes not recognized by its adherents, and sometimes carefully hidden by them. I. N. Ionov revealed this background back in 1992: "The theory of civilizations in its cultural version... It was born out of a nationally oriented critique of these ideas (the ideas of Enlightenment - L. A.) with a strong irrational component" [Civilizatsii..., 1992, p. 21]. I have already written about one of the variants of the civilizational approach and its "super-task" (Alaev, 2008). But the ninth wave is coming. "The history of civilizations" began to be taught in universities as an independent discipline [Istoriya..., 2012]. The textbook on this course was prepared by a team of teachers of the Southern Federal (Rostov) University. From the textbook, students will learn, for example, that " Great Britain is an island state located in Western Europe." "The Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) is located in Western Europe". "Spain is located in the extreme south-west of the European continent "[Istoriya..., 2012, p. 159]. "Russia is ...the world's largest state, located in the eastern part of Europe and in the northern part of Asia" [Istoriya..., 2012, p. 56, 130, 159, 288]. "Republic of India... It is located in South Asia." "Japan... - a state located on the islands of the Pacific Ocean, near the coast of East Asia "[Istoriya..., 2012, p. 383, 414]. And a lot of other facts that are relevant in the encyclopedia for children. It remains to be regretted that the student will not receive the same in-depth and comprehensive information about the location of the United States and Canada. In addition, the authors succinctly and aphoristically report on the" national character and mentality " (thes ... Read more