Changing Places: Society, Culture, and Territory in the Saxon-Bohemian Borderlands, 1870–1946. By Caitlin E. Murdock. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. 2010. Pp. X+275. Cloth $70.00. ISBN 978-0-472-11722-2

摘要

In her study of the Bohemian-Saxon borderlands, Caitlin Murdock provides a new perspective on international politics in central Europe. Organized chronologically and topically, the book offers a detailed examination of local, regional, and provincial forces in this transnational region. Arguing that nationalisms competed with other loyalties and interests, Murdock joins historians who have recently challenged the primacy of nationality and nationalism in modern central European history. Focusing primarily on Saxony, she demonstrates, on the one hand, how Saxon Germans became Reich Germans, and on the other, how Bohemian Germans became Sudeten Germans. Moreover, she traces the creation of the “Sudetenland”—a term used at least since 1897—in the popular imagination on both sides of the border. Her analysis is not limited to Czechs and Germans; she also weaves discussion of the Sorbs, a Slavic minority in Saxony, into the book.