Creation of National Spaces in a Pluricultural Region

Vasilijus Safronovas is principal investigator at the Institute of Baltic Region History and Archaeology, at Klaip?da University. He has published widely on issues of memory, identity, and cultural contact. His recent study Kampf um Identitat: Die ideologische Auseinandersetzung in Memel/Klaipeda im 20. Jahrhundert (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2015) was awarded the Immanuel-Kant-Forschungspreis from the German Federal Government.

• Acknowledgments List of FiguresIntroductionChapter 1. East Prussia: An Arena for Cultural Meetings and ConflictsChapter 2. Lithuania in Prussia: Changing Concepts in the Sixteenth to Nineteenth CenturiesChapter 3. Lithuania as a Peculiar Region of Germany (1850s–1910s)Chapter 4. The Invention of Lithuania Minor (1870–1910s)Chapter 5. Interaction of the German and Lithuanian Concepts of Prussian Lithuania in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth CenturiesChapter 6. Battles over Spaces "of Their Own”: Changes after 1918Concluding RemarksBibliography Index of Names Geographic Index ​Subject Index

"Maps are not made in a vacuum. In this geographically sophisticated book, Vasilijus Safronovas shows how Lithuania was formed by its diverse peoples as a space for interaction. Interrogating how the toponyms of East Prussia, Lithuania Minor, and Prussian Lithuania evolved as regions, and fed into modern nation-building, irredentist, or diasporic projects, the author skillfully analyzes the country's social and political history. Making fine use of German, Polish, Lithuanian and Russian sources, he persuasively challenges us to reconsider the criteria behind Lithuania's slew of mental maps—why some systems of meaning persisted, while others were suppressed or altered beyond recognition."