The Rise of Nationality in Eastern Europe [antikvár]

Preface The title of this book requires some explanation. The term Eastern Europe has been in use in many ways since it emerged in the last century as the definition of a historical region, though it had of course been in use for a long time as a geographical definition. But in this book something else is involved. The definition of this area among English-speaking historians is fluid, and several variants are employed. Eastern Europe—the term employed here—might mean Poland and the Balkans, sometimes Czechoslovakia, Central Europe meaning Austria and Hungary, and sometunes Czechoslovakia. The German name, "Ostmit-teleuropa", may mean both at the same time, but can also be interpreted as corresponding to Eastern and Central Europe, or East-Central Europe. Russia, or to be more exact, its European area, including its numerous nationalities, is usually omitted from these definitions. But more than names are concerned. The facts which the Anglo-Saxon terms express go to show that here the historical development of certain regions with a large number of common or parallel features, and features that distinguish them from other regions, are involved. What we are dealing with here are historical and not geographi-