Description:
Examines the Góral, a little-studied ethnic group in Poland.
The Góral ethnic identity has been at the center of political machinations in Poland for centuries. The late Pope John Paul II, for example, was a Góral. This is the first book-length study of the Góral identity and one of the few studies in English to discuss Górals. Through personal interviews, local manuscripts, and academic histories of the region, author Deborah Cahalen Schneider shows how important the Góral identity has been to Poland's history. The conflict over the Góral identity in the community of Zùywiec, Poland serves as a lens through which Schneider views national identity issues and class conflict in Poland at large. The Góral identity not only gave this community a sense of togetherness under the Habsburg Empire, but also was a symbol of Polish identity for Polish nationalists during that time. Schneider shows how the Góral identity has spanned the rise and, arguably, the fall of nationalism as the primary discourse of political identity in the post-Cold War, European Union-dominated Eastern Europe.
Brief description: Deborah Cahalen Schneider is an independent scholar living in Virginia.
Review Quotes: "Schneider writes in a lively and engaging style, which creates a sense of empathy with the people she describes and a consequent appreciation of their dilemmas and strategies in a difficult situation. That evocation of empathy through detail is precisely what is missing in most studies of Eastern Europe, but Schneider puts us in the Zuywiecers' shoes, which allows us to see the changes in Eastern Europe in a new light."