num_pages: 550
description: This is a history of a stateless people the Carpatho-Rusyns and their historic homeland Carpathian Rus' located in the heart of central Europe. At the present when it is fashionable to speak of nationalities as 'imagined communities' or as transnational constructs 'created' by intellectuals\elites who may live in the historic 'national' homeland or in the diaspora Carpatho-Rusyns provide an ideal example of a people made--or some would say still being made--before our very eyes. The book traces the evolution of Carpathian Rus' from earliest pre-historic times to the present and the complex manner in which a distinct Carpatho-Rusyn people since the mid-nineteenth century came into being disappeared and then re-appeared in the wake of the revolutions of 1989 and the collapse of Communist rule in central and eastern Europe. The book while based on the author's four decades of erudition on the subject eschews scholarly jargon and is written in an accessible reader-friendly style--Provided by publisher.
language: English
title: With Their Backs to the Mountains
publisher: CEU Press