Description
Book Synopsis It is difficult to speak about Europe today without reference to its constitutive regions—supra-national geographical designations such as “Scandinavia,” “Eastern Europe,” and “the Balkans.” Such formulations are so ubiquitous that they are frequently treated as empirical realities rather than a series of shifting, overlapping, and historically constructed concepts. This volume is the first to provide a synthetic account of these concepts and the historical and intellectual contexts in which they emerged. Bringing together prominent international scholars from across multiple disciplines, it systematically and comprehensively explores how such “meso-regions” have been conceptualized throughout modern European history.
Trade Review “After reading the individual contributions, the attempt of a Trans-European historiography through the inclusion specifically of the meso-regions proves to be truly successful….But it is not only because of an updated regional history that the volume is very informative and readable; it also offers many fruitful ideas for the various historiographical academic disciplines and an overarching transnational discourse. Hopefully, these concepts will be developed further.” • Historische Zeitschrift
“…acquiring this book will undoubtedly help you to get a very good understanding of the spatial turn, its advantages and its shortcomings, not to mention that it will provide you with all the necessary bibliography on matters of conceptual regions.” • EuropeanReview ofHistory:Revue européenne d'histoire
“All in all, this volume is a successful and highly recommendable book. It conveys many important insights into European history, as well as into the possibilities of doing a conceptual history which goes beyond basic political-philosophical concepts. And it will provide the reader with a good knowledge-base for answering the question about where Central Europe actually is located.” • Global Intellectual History
“Many of the individual chapters are highly readable and insightful…Many [readers] will indulge in the rich intricacies of conceptual history and historical concepts that abound in this book as a whole.” • European History Quarterly
“With a roster of authoritative scholars, the chapters of this book chart the construction and use of the key concepts of European space. By focusing on conceptual ‘clusters’, an extraordinary number of subjects are covered, and the complex processes at work are further highlighted by the frequent cross-referencing between chapters and topics, making this compelling book much more than the sum of its individual studies.” • Wendy Bracewell, University College London
Table of Contents List of Tables and Figures
Introduction
Diana Mishkova and Balázs Trencsényi
PART I: EUROPEAN MESO-REGIONS
Chapter 1. Western Europe
Stefan Berger
Chapter 2. Scandinavia / Norden
Bo Stråth and Marja Jalava
Chapter 3. The Baltic
Pärtel Piirimäe
Chapter 4. The Mediterranean
Vaso Seirinidou
Chapter 5. Southern Europe
Guido Franzinetti
Chapter 6. Iberia
Xosé-M.Núñez Seixas
Chapter 7. Balkans / Southeastern Europe
Diana Mishkova
Chapter 8. Central Europe
Balázs Trencsényi
Chapter 9. Eastern Europe
Frithjof Benjamin Schenk
Chapter 10. Eurasia
Mark Bassin
PART II: DISCIPLINARY TRADITIONS OF REGIONALIZATION
Chapter 11. European History
Stefan Troebst
Chapter 12. Political Geography and Geopolitics
Virginie Mamadouh and Martin Müller
Chapter 13. Economics
Georgi Ganev
Chapter 14. Historical Demography
Attila Melegh
Chapter 15. Linguistics
Uwe Hinrichs
Chapter 16. Literary History
Alex Drace-Francis
Chapter 17. Art History
Eric Storm
Index
