On Civilization''s Edge - A Polish Borderland in the Interwar World

At the end of World War I, an eclectic group of Polish "civilizers" from border guards and urban planners to teachers and military settlers-descended upon a poor, war-torn, and multi-ethnic borderland that had previously been part of the Russian empire. On Civilization's Edge examines how fears of national weakness, competitions for local power, and mounting anxieties about the rise of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union set the stage for Polish statesmen to assert their right to rule over the region's ethnic minorities.

List of contents

• Preface: A Conversation


• Introduction: On the Edge, In the World


• Chapter 1: Democracy as Civilizing Mission


• Chapter 2: The Integration Myth


• Chapter 3: The Many Meanings of the Border


• Chapter 4: Polish Towns? Jewish Towns?


• Chapter 5: Depoliticizing the Volhynian Village


• Chapter 6: Regionalism, or The Limits of Inclusion


• Chapter 7: Thinking Technocratically


• Conclusion


• Notes


• Bibliography

About the author

Kathryn Ciancia is Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Product details

• Authors: Kathryn Ciancia, Kathryn (Associate Professor of History Ciancia
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 12.01.2021
• EAN: 9780190067458
• ISBN: 978-0-19-006745-8
• No. of pages: 368
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > 20th century (up to 1945); European History, Poland, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, HISTORY / Europe / Poland, Colonialism & imperialism, Colonialism and imperialism, c 1919 to c 1939 (Inter-war period), c 1918 to c 1939 (Inter-war period), HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / General, HISTORY / Russia / General