Overview

Though the Alps may appear to be a peaceful place, the famed mountains once provided the backdrop for a political, environmental, and cultural battle as Germany and Austria struggled to modernize. Tait Keller examines the mountains' threefold role in transforming the two countries, as people sought respite in the mountains, transformed and shaped them according to their needs, and over time began to view them as national symbols and icons of individualism. In the mid-nineteenth century, the Alps were regarded as a place of solace from industrial development and the stresses of urban life. Soon, however, mountaineers, or the so-called “apostles of the Alps”, began carving the crags to suit their whims, altering the natural landscape with trails and lodges, and seeking to modernize and nationalize the high frontier. Disagreements over the meaning of modernization opened the mountains to competing agendas and hostile ambitions. Keller examines the ways in which these opposing approaches corresponded to the political battles, social conflicts, culture wars, and environmental crusades that shaped modern Germany and Austria, placing the Alpine borderlands at the heart of the German question of nationhood.

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9781469625034

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Reviews

A useful overall account of developments [in the Alps], filling his narrative with verve, enthusiasm, and numerous interesting vignettes. . . . An original contribution through [the] extensive use of association periodicals and focus on the work of Alpine activists.--<i>German Historical Institute London Bulletin</i>

An excellent example of how to study the 'conquest of nature.'. . . Very convincingly demonstrates how the ecoregion of the Alps was transformed.-- H-Net Reviews

Author Information

Tait Keller is assistant professor of history at Rhodes College, USA.

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