Environmentalism in Central and Southeastern Europe
Historical Perspectives
Contributions by Ivan Brlic, Anita Tonkovic Bušljeta, Selçuk Dursun, Roman Holec, Katarina Polajnar Horvat, Vladimir Lay, Vine Mihaljevic, Jelena Mrgic, Hrvoje Petric, Luigi Piccioni, Milica Prokic, Jelena Pudak, Dorin Ioan Rus, Martin Schmid, Angelika Schoder, Vaso Seirinidou, Aleš Smrekar, Ivana Žebec Šilj, Matija Zorn Edited by Hrvoje Petric, Ivana Žebec Šilj
Publication date:
17 March 2017Length of book:
304 pagesPublisher
Lexington BooksDimensions:
239x157mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9781498527644
Consisting of 12 chapters, the book presents the rise and development of environmentalism, environmental history as a discipline, and the history of environmental movements in the Central and South Eastern European region from an international point of view.
The chapters—written by scholars from Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Greece and Turkey—cover a wide range of topics including the creation of protected areas, increasing environmental consciousness, the evolution of humanity’s relationship toward the environment, and perceptions of environmentalism by different disciplines.
This international approach highlights the region’s complex development from the end of the eighteenth century through the twentieth century, with its unique blend of traditions. Three historically different traditions—the Habsburg, Ottoman and Venetian—converge in Central and South Eastern Europe, and this book emphasizes the subtleties of these sometimes intertwined traditions.
The focus of the book varies according to both the different geographical environments characteristic of the region and the protagonists who actively participated in changing relationships toward the environment. However, what does not vary and is common to all the chapters is the historical approach, since the process has continuity, which the book accentuates.
In geographical terms, the region that is the focus of the book, Central and South Eastern Europe, is the contact zone of the Alps, Danube, Adriatic and partially the North Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Throughout history, it was also the contact zone of the Habsburg, Ottoman and Venetian traditions. Those realities have resulted in a unique blending and intertwining of traditions and, therefore, relationships with and perceptions of the environment.
The chapters—written by scholars from Italy, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Greece and Turkey—cover a wide range of topics including the creation of protected areas, increasing environmental consciousness, the evolution of humanity’s relationship toward the environment, and perceptions of environmentalism by different disciplines.
This international approach highlights the region’s complex development from the end of the eighteenth century through the twentieth century, with its unique blend of traditions. Three historically different traditions—the Habsburg, Ottoman and Venetian—converge in Central and South Eastern Europe, and this book emphasizes the subtleties of these sometimes intertwined traditions.
The focus of the book varies according to both the different geographical environments characteristic of the region and the protagonists who actively participated in changing relationships toward the environment. However, what does not vary and is common to all the chapters is the historical approach, since the process has continuity, which the book accentuates.
In geographical terms, the region that is the focus of the book, Central and South Eastern Europe, is the contact zone of the Alps, Danube, Adriatic and partially the North Eastern Mediterranean Sea. Throughout history, it was also the contact zone of the Habsburg, Ottoman and Venetian traditions. Those realities have resulted in a unique blending and intertwining of traditions and, therefore, relationships with and perceptions of the environment.
This is an unmatched book that opens up the environmental histories of various modern countries from the eighteenth century to the present. Both an intellectual history of how people have thought about their environments and a material history of how they have lived with them, the empirical stories offered here reveal an enormous amount about Central and Southeastern Europe and offer environmental historians of other places and times new ideas for thinking about the role of nature in history and the role of history in nature. This study is an important contribution to global environmental history.