REVIEW: FOERSTER, HORST; HERZBERG JULIA; ZUECKERT, MARTIN (ED.) ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY(IES). EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE FROM INDUSTRIALIZATION TO POST-SOCIALISM. GOETTINGEN: VANDENHOECK&RUPRECHT, 2013. 346S.

Abstract

The digest is a result of the publication of the conference materials on environmental history. The keynote of the digest is the discussion on the possibilities and limits of constructing Eastern Europe as a special ecological and historical region. The structure of the digest is presented in several thematic clusters: infrastructure and environment, the perception of the landscape, the effects of collectivization and modernization of the agricultural sector, protection of nature and environmental movements. The authors of the digest are united by the understanding of common principles of the relations between man and nature at the level of everyday life structures in most parts of Europe, as well as by the thesis of relative independence of modern concepts of how natural world has been explored from ideologies. However, those findings did not link the entire collection. Ecological cooperation in the socialist camp, or issues of industrial pollution are beyond the analysis; the environmental lobby is seen as undifferentiated monolith. The “gap” between the conceptual stance of collectors and its content can be considered as an invitation to the reader to think independently and to the colleagues to do further research.