Bloomsbury Academic Slav Outposts in Central European History: The Wends, Sorbs and Kashubs

While many think of European history in terms of the major states that today make up the map of Europe, this approach tends to overlook submerged nations like the Wends, the westernmost Slavs who once inhabited the lands which later became East Germany and Western Poland. This book examines the decline and gradual erosion of the Wends from the time when they occupied all the land between the River Elbe and the River Vistula around 800 AD to the present, where they still survive in tiny enclaves south of Berlin (the Wends and Sorbs) and west of Danzig (the Kashubs). Slav Outposts in Central European History - which also includes numerous images and maps - puts the story of the Wends, the Sorbs and the Kashubs in a wider European context in order to further sophisticate our understanding of how ethnic groups, societies, confessions and states have flourished or floundered in the region. It is an important book for all students and scholars of central European history and the history of European peoples and states more generally. Review This is a pioneering and unique history of the unlikely survivors of western Slavdom. Nobody but Gerald Stone could have interpreted the linguistic evidence so expertly, placed it so sensitively in wider historical contexts, and conveyed such erudition so lucidly. This wonderful book preserves for posterity knowledge not only of the Sorbs and Kashubs, but also of those Wends who did not survive to the end of the twentieth century. It is a book not only for lovers of endangered languages, but for all those who take an interest in global processes of homogenization and in resistance to them. --Richard Butterwick-Pawlikowski, University College London, UKThis is a formidable synthesis that draws on both classical and up-to-date scholarship from, and archival collections in, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Poland. At the same time, it is very well written and accessible the author comfortably and aptly moves back and forth between the German, Czech, and Poland lands. This book will be of value to historians of a number of periods who often come upon groups like the Wends and Sorbs in specialized scholarship and other contexts, but dont know how to understand their place in a broader context. --James Palmitessa, Western Michigan University, USAThis is the first comprehensive account of the history of the least known of Slavonic peoples, written by the doyen of international experts in the field. Always relatively few in numbers, but with distinctive language and culture, the Wends have long suffered neglect, since they never possessed political clout, still less statehood, in the strip of northern Central Europe where they have lived for a millennium between and amid Germans and Poles. Stone constructs a fascinating story out of the often exiguous sources, from the initial appearance of the Wends as fanatical pagan warriors to the latest challenges to their survival: persecution by Nazis, exploitation by Communists, constant pressure for assimilation, and a more insidious threat from vast opencast lignite mines in the heart of the historic Wendish territory. Its a poignant tale, sympathically, even affectionately told, but without any partiality or sentiment. It also yields rich comparative material for students of sociolinguistics, especially about public policy and private attitudes towards endangered languages. British readers may be reminded in particular of parallels with the history of our own Celtic language communities. --Robert Evans, University of Oxford, UK About the Author Gerald Stone FBA is Emeritus Fellow of Hertford College and Faculty Research Fellow in the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages at the University of Oxford, UK. He is the author of The Smallest Slavonic Nation: The Sorbs of Lusatia, The Russian Language since the Revolution and numerous articles on aspects of Wendish culture.'