Between the Seas: Island Identities in the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas

In Between the Seas, Deborah Paci takes a comparative view of islandness in island identities through case studies of islands in the Baltic and Mediterranean Seas. These case studies primarily include, in the Baltic case, the Åland Islands, Gotland, Saaremaa, Hiiumaa and Ruhnu; and in the Mediterranean case, Sicily, Malta, Sardinia and Corsica. Examining multiple sites of these islands' identities such as history, environmental concerns and governance systems, this book provides a historical perspective into the relations between islands and the larger geopolitical regions around them, as well as historicizing 'insularist' rhetoric deployed by pro-independence groups within them. Paci examines the changing role and increasing political importance of islands in the European Union against the history of island insularity and offers a significant contribution to the wider field of island studies.

Table of Contents:
List of illustrations Preamble: comparing islands Acknowledgements Maps Introduction 1 The Baltic Sea and Mediterranean regions as spaces of expectations 2 The views of the European Institutions on the island question 3 Insular identity in the Baltic Sea region 4 Autonomy and independence in insular Mediterranean areas Conclusion References Index

About the Author :
Deborah Paci teaches Digital Public History at the University of Bologna and the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. She is also Research Associate at the Center for Modern and Contemporary Mediterranean of Côte d'Azur University, France, and the Institute of Island Studies of the University of Prince Edward Island, Canada. She is the author of Corsica fatal, Malta baluardo di romanità. L'irredentismo fascista nel mare nostrum (1922-1942) (2015) and L'arcipelago della pace. Le isole Åland e il Baltico (XIX-XXI sec.) (2016).

Review :
In this fascinating book about the main islands in the Baltic and the Mediterranean, Deborah Paci shows that isola has little to do with isolation despite their shared origin. Rather than being isolated, Sardinia, Corsica, Gotland, Saaremaa, and the other book islands are closely connected in their larger spatial and historical context. A superb exercise in comparative imagination and the comparative study of imaginaries, Paci's book enriches island studies with a cultural-political perspective that rejects the lure of geographical determinism in all of its facets. Between the Seas demonstrates that a correct orientation towards islandness is the best antidote towards insularism in both politics and scholarship. Islands are a compelling topic of social and historical studies: on the one hand, they have clear geographical borders, which seem to determine distinct identities and political autonomy. On the other hand, many islands have been hubs in trans-maritime economic, political, and cultural connections or are of geopolitical relevance, and are hence not at all isolated from outside world. Comparisons between the Baltic and Mediterranean Sea regions have played an important role in historiography long before Fernand Braudel's seminal work, often reflecting on tensions between processes of unification and fragmentations in both regions. While the focus on the Mediterranean has been widely dominating until the 20th century, this constellation has changed in political terms since the 1990s, when Baltic regional cooperation and integration has been promoted by regional actors as well as from the European Union as a model also for the Mediterranean. Deborah Paci's book undertakes what has been often demanded, but rarely delivered: It combines both maritime regions and delves into the fascinating history of various islands, selected as case studies. She analyses historical and political imaginaries of island identities with a broader perspective on their role in both regions as focal areas of the European Union as well as on their role in recent geopolitical developments.