Galicia: A Multicultured Land

by Christopher Hann (Editor), Paul Robert Magocsi

Habsburg Galicia was an area in central Europe covering territory presently occupied by Poland and Ukraine that was distinctive for its multi-ethnic character. With the unraveling of the Austro-Hungarian Empire following the First World War, a new political map of Europe emerged, one based on the principle of the nation-state. The very concept of the nation-state, however, was problematic in culturally pluralistic regions like Galicia. The essays in this volume examine Galicia beyond the traditional paradigm of national history, in an effort to better understand the region as a place where different ethnic communities - Poles, Ukrainians, Jews, Austro-Germans - lived in peaceful co-existence. As expansion of the European Union proceeds, as migration becomes increasingly prevalent, and as the very concept of the nation-state is called into question, a look back to see how cultural diversity was managed in a pre-nationalist age is of more than antiquarian interest. The contributors to this multidisciplinary volume pursue a wide range of approaches to shed fresh light on this unique region.

Genres: Poland, History, Ukraine

260 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2005

Reviews

[Czarny Pies]

"Galicia: A Multicultural Land" is comprised of eleven lectures given at the conference "Galicia: A Region's Identity" in May 1998 at Arhus in Denmark. If you do not know what and where Galicia was, there is very little point in your reading this book.
Galicia is a province of the Habsburg or Austro-Hungarian Empire came into being at the time of the First Polish Partition and ceased to in 1918 as a result of Austria's defeat during WWI. Galicia extended from the Vistula to the Zbruch rivers and was divided in half by the San River. On the eve of WWI, the population of Galicia was 45.4% Polish, 42.9% Ukrainian (or Ruthenian as it was then designated) and, Jewish 10.9%. The Polish language dominated in the west portion of Galicia while Ruthenian was the language of the majority to the East of the San River.
The articles in this collection confine themselves to the time-frame of 1772-1918 and some authors comment on earlier and later events. The content is overwhelmingly tilted towards Ukraine rather than Polish issues.
Overall the volume provides an excellent view of the struggles of Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (a.k.a Uniate Church) as well as the discussion in the press and public statements about Ukrainian nationals.
The articles display the problems that one frequently encounters with academic junkets; i.e. they appear have been based on earlier research and thrown together quickly. Nonetheless some are excellent. None are totally without interest. The ones that I found most informative were:
• "Peasants and Patriotic Celebrations" by Kai Stuve
• "Ethnic Communities in the towns of the Polish-Ukrainian Borderland", Jerzy Motylewicz
• "Confessional Relations in Galicia" John Paul Himka

The two editors, Paul Magocsi and Christopher Hann, before argue fervently that the case of Galicia is worth studying because it casts light on how the multicultural past of many nations still has an important influence on attitudes in our contemporary era. Unfortunately, "Galicia: A Multicultural Land" fails to do this. It provides simply a good description of Ukrainian nationalism in Galicia during the 146 years of its existence.

[Sarah]

Of course I liked this book. Lemko power!