Carpathians. A tale of certain mountains. E-BOOK

Maciej Janowski’s book “Carpathians. A Tale of Some Mountains” covers the entire Carpathian chain – from Bratislava to the Iron Gates, from the Bieszczady Mountains to the Bihor Mountains – and describes the history of the region from prehistory to the present. For the author, the Carpathians are a space where man and landscape form a community of destiny, and history unfolds in the rhythm of valleys and passes.

Janowski depicts the Carpathians as a multinational area, where different ethnic and religious groups – Poles, Ruthenians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Romanians, Czechs, Jews, Germans – coexisted for centuries. In this landscape, stretched between cultures and empires, “mountainousness” becomes a cultural category – a way of life and thinking shaped by nature, beliefs and art.

The author also looks at the period of post-war transition: displacement, industrialization, changes in landscape and memory. This section shows the clash between the legacy of empires and the reality of socialist countries, and then the transformation process after 1989.

Without exaltation, but with literary care and historical erudition, the author draws a panorama of the Carpathians, which have no single center.

The twenty-third volume of the Library of Central Europe series.

Electronic publication available in EPUB + MOBI format

Publication in Polish.