Regional Approaches to the Eastern Front of the First World War

Mgr Kamil Ruszała (Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Institute of History, Department of Polish Modern History)

Abstrakt

The First World War centenary has brought new publications which depict small regions in the shadow of the war. Within this genre military aspects of the war become dominated by social and economic history. This is documented, among others, by research on the Hinterland areas and local communities. Mainly one can enumerate a couple of collective volumes dealing with selected problems of regions and their inhabitants in a period of the First World War. They concern social and political mood, war nourishment, public health, perception of strangers at home areas (refugees, internees, prisoners of war etc.), education and war time arts. Some universal problems encapsulated in the phrase “everyday life” before and after 1918 are also dealt with. In my paper I would like to present an overview of regional historiography of the last time with focus on Galicia Austrian Lands, to discuss main trends and also present which fields of study are still underrepresented.