On Their Own Behalf : Ewald Ammende, Europe's National Minorities and the Campaign for Cultural Autonomy 1920-1936.

Intro -- On their own behalf: Ewald Ammende, Europe's national minorities and the campaign for cultural autonomy 1920-1936 -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- Images -- Introduction: Why Baltic History is more difficult to write than German History -- ONE Brave new world: enterprise and aid -- TWO Liberal nationalist -- THREE Becoming a minority -- FOUR Achieving cultural autonomy -- FIVE Minority interests-European interests-global interests -- SIX Establishing the European Congress of Nationalities -- SEVEN The General Secretary: early optimism and its frustrations -- EIGHT 1929: year of the minorities -- NINE International national community thinking and a different kind of Pan-Europe -- TEN Critical challenges -- ELEVEN The new nationalist wave -- TWELVE When friends won't help -- THIRTEEN Aftermath -- FOURTEEN Fateful context -- FIFTEEN At Stalin's throat -- SIXTEEN Admitting defeat -- Conclusion: The need for more histories of national minorities -- Bibliography -- Index.

What form should Europe take? Should it be based on 'nation states' or 'states of nations'? On what basis should European unification proceed? Should it be an élite undertaking pioneered by statesmen elected to democratic government offices, or should true unification also demand a significant European cultural forum open to spokesmen and -women representing the continent's nationality groups? Was the League of Nations really such a thing? Or was it a League of States? All these questions were posed by Ewald Ammende and his fellow minority associates during the 1920s. Coming to terms with the consequences of collapsed empires and at least four years of conflict, they were forced to consider how best to re-build their continent as if it were a tabula rasa. In the process, they provided intelligent, perceptive analyses of the national and international affairs of the day, particularly as they affected Central and Eastern Europe. Their voices, reflecting their status as national minorities and a geographical location beyond the borders of the post-war Great Powers, deserve to be written more thoroughly into the history of the interwar years. Their ideas still provide food for thought even today.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2024. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.