Description
Book SynopsisIn The Carpathians, Patrice M. Dabrowski narrates how three highland ranges of the mountain system found in present-day Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine were discovered for a broader regional public. This is a story of how the Tatras, Eastern Carpathians, and Bieszczady Mountains went from being terra incognita to becoming the popular tourist destinations they are today. It is a story of the encounter of Polish and Ukrainian lowlanders with the wild, sublime highlands and with the indigenous highlandersGórale, Hutsuls, Boikos, and Lemkosand how these peoples were incorporated into a national narrative as the territories were transformed into a native/national landscape.
The set of microhistories in this book occur from about 1860 to 1980, a time in which nations and states concerned themselves with the frontier at the edge. Discoverers not only became enthralled with what were perceived as their own highlands but also availed themselves of the mountain
Trade Review
The Carpathians is, in many ways, a pioneering effort, one that will hopefully put the Carpathians back on historians' mental maps and pave the way for further studies.
* History:Reviews of New Books *
Dabrowski is admirably open-minded and even-handed in explaining the perspectives of different actors and the visions of the highlands that they articulated. While engaging in ongoing, nuanced exploration of the relationship between the local and the national, she is attentive to those, such as the Jewish residents of the region, who could never quite speak on behalf of either local society or the nation but nonetheless played significant roles in the mutual constitution of both
* H-net Poland *
Patrice M. Dabrowski has written an excellent book on a topic that has been long neglected. With the publication of The Carpathians, this major mountain range is finally beginning to catch up with the Alps and the Pyrenees as another kind of borderland that offers scholars a unique perspective on the development of modern national identities and everyday life.
* Slavic Review *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Part I: The Tatra Mountains of Galicia
1. Where Freedom Awaits
2. On the Mountain Pass
3. Transforming the Tatras
4. Turn-of-the-Century Innovations
Part II: The Eastern Carpathians of Galicia and the Second Polish Republic
5. The Hutsul Region and the Hand of Civilization
6. The Advent of the Railway
7. A New Alpine Club
8. A Poland of Regions
Part III: The Bieszczady Mountains of the Polish People's Republic
9. A Novel Wilderness
10. Tourism for the Masses
11. Battling for the Soul of the Bieszczady
12. Power, Ecology, and the Public Sphere
Conclusion
