Creating the Other: Ethnic Conflict & Nationalism in Habsburg Central Europe(5 Austrian and Habsburg Studies)

The historic myths of a people/nation usually play an important role in the creation and consolidation of the basic concepts from which the self-image of that nation derives. These concepts include not only images of the nation itself, but also images of other peoples. Although the construction of ethnic stereotypes during the "long" nineteenth century initially had other functions than simply the homogenization of the particular culture and the exclusion of "others" from the public sphere, the evaluation of peoples according to criteria that included "level of civilization" yielded "rankings" of ethnic groups within the Habsburg Monarchy. That provided the basis for later, more divisive ethnic characterizations of exclusive nationalism, as addressed in this volume that examines the roots and results of ethnic, nationalist, and racial conflict in the region from a variety of historical and theoretical perspectives.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1. Representing National Territory: Cartography and Nationalism in Hungary I. Popova Chapter 2. The Development and Functions of Ethnic Stereotypes in Austria and in Hungary in the Nineteenth Century A. Vári Chapter 3. Czechs, Germans, Bohemians? Images of the Self and Other in Bohemia, 1800-1848 H. L. Agnew Chapter 4. The Image of the Other in the 19th Century: Historical Scholarship in the Czech Lands Jiri Staif Chapter 5. Jews, and Peasants: Jews as the Others in the Formation of the Modern Polish Nation in Rural Galicia K. Struve and Gentry Chapter 6. Nationalizing Rural Landscapes in Cisleithania, 1880-1914 P. Judson Chapter 7. Ethnology, Cultural Reification, and the Dynamics of Difference in the Kronprinzenwerk R. Bendix Chapter 8. The Nation, the Enemy, and Imagined Territories: Hungarian Elements in the Emergence of a Czechoslovak National Narrative during and after WWI P. Haslinger Chapter 9. The South Slavs in the Austrian Mind: Serbs and Slovenes in the Changing View from German Nationalism to National Socialism C. Promitzer Chapter 10. Peooples of the Mountains, Peoples of the plains: Space and Ethnographic Representation K. Kaser Chapter 11. Marking the Difference of Looking for Common Grounds? South East Central Europe O. B. Luthar Chapter 12. The Psychology of Creating the "Other" in National Identity, Ethnic Enmity, and Racism P. Loewenberg Notes on Contributors Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Nancy M. Wingfield is Associate Professor of History at Northern Illinois University. She is the author of books and articles on Habsburg Central Europe.

Review :
"Most of the contributions are excellent…the collection as a whole provides an invaluable update on new work in this area."  ·  History