Overview

This book is the first historical work to examine the notion of national territories in Yugoslavia – a concept fundamental for the understanding of Yugoslav history.  Exploring the intertwined histories of geography as an emerging discipline in the South Slavic lands and geographical works describing interwar Yugoslavia, the book focuses on the engagement of geographers in the on-going political conflict over the national question. Duančić shows that geographers were uniquely equipped to address the creation of the new country and the numerous problems it faced, as they provided accounts of Yugoslavia’s past, present, and even future, all of which were understood as inherently embedded in geography. By analyzing a large body of geographical narratives on the Yugoslav state, the book follows both the attempts to “naturalize” and present Yugoslavia as a sustainable political and cultural unit, as well as the attempts to challenge its existence by pointing to unresolvable, geographically conditioned tensions within it. The book approaches geographical discourse in Yugoslavia as part of a wider European scientific network, pointing to similarities and specifically Yugoslav characteristics. 

Full Product Details

Author:   Vedran Duančić
Publisher:   Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Imprint:   Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Edition:   1st ed. 2020
Weight:   0.396kg
ISBN:  

9783030502614

ISBN 10:   3030502619
Pages:   286
Publication Date:   22 August 2021
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

​ 1.       Introduction   Geographers as Nation Builders    Nationalist Geographical Narratives    A Time of Geographers in East Central Europe    Multi-leveled Geographies of Yugoslavia   Spatial Dimension of a Nation   2.       The Emerging Geographical Network in Yugoslavia  Institutionalization of Geography in the Yugoslav Lands   Anthropogeography Between History and Ethnology   Trapped Between Primitiveness and Civilization   Studying Race   Teaching Geography at Universities      3.       Jovan Cvijić and the Anthropogeography of the Balkans  The Center of the Network   A Geomorphologist’s Vision of Anthropogeography   Shifting Attention from Serbian to Yugoslav Lands   The War That Changed the Perspective   The Proof That Yugoslavia Exists     4.       Geographical Narration of Yugoslavia  Creating Yugoslavia in Paris   Croatian and Slovenian Geographical Narratives of Yugoslavia Disillusionment of Cvijić  Early Works of Filip Lukas: The Yugoslavist Phase of a Croatian Nationalist  Unity Built on Fragments  Slovenian Perspectives on the Geography of Yugoslavia  A Beneficial Cohabitation: Slovenia and Yugoslavia  If Only Yugoslavia Could Become Like France    5.       Geopolitical Visions of Yugoslavia Improving the Geographical Literacy of the Nation  Ivo Pilar on the Trauma of 1918  Embracing the Geopolitik  Czechoslovak and Polish Lessons for Yugoslavia  The Reluctant Geopolitics of Anton Melik  Challenging the Geopolitical Paradigm   6.       The Fight of Filip Lukas Against Yugoslavia Echoes and Definitions  Denaturalizing Yugoslavia, Naturalizing Croatia  Toward a Right-Wing Geographical Vision of the Croatian Nation  Ethnology Against Geopolitics Geography in the Time of Fascism    7.       Conclusion    

Reviews

Vedran Duancic monograph represents a very significant and important contribution to investigating nation building processes in their connection with geographical knowledge, related to the context of South Slavic regions. ... The book would have benefitted from a broader archival investigation of primary sources ... as well as a deeper comparison with Italian geographical works and intellectual figures. ... the book is a very rich contribution to the debate on histories of geographies and their involvement in nation building processes. (Matteo Proto, Hungarian Geographical Bulletin, Vol. 71 (1), 2022)

“Vedran Duančić monograph represents a very significant and important contribution to investigating nation building processes in their connection with geographical knowledge, related to the context of South Slavic regions. … The book would have benefitted from a broader archival investigation of primary sources … as well as a deeper comparison with Italian geographical works and intellectual figures. … the book is a very rich contribution to the debate on histories of geographies and their involvement in nation building processes.” (Matteo Proto, Hungarian Geographical Bulletin, Vol. 71 (1), 2022)

Author Information

Vedran Duančić is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science at the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts.

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