Abstract
This collection of twelve articles devoted to the study of alterities in early modern, modern and contemporary European societies was written by an international team of authors coming from seven European countries, and emerged in two related contexts. The first was a workshop with the same title, organised by the editors in September 2002.
The second was an accomplished research project, which deserved concluding reflection. The volume is opened by an Introduction of editors, in which they look back on the evolution of the approach of the research team and summarise what has been done, and where the team is heading.
Authors declare as their conceptual starting point the discussion at the congress in Stuttgart in 1985 initiated by Helene Ahrweiler, Bronislaw Geremek and Michel Mollat du Jourdin. The team decided to focus on alterity defined socially (criminalization of otherness in early modern and modern Europe studied by Daniela Tinková and Peter Becker, and poverty in twentieth century cities analysed by Marjaana Niemi and Lorna Goldsmith), on confessionally defined alterity related to migration (Markéta Křížová, Jaroslav Miller, Eva Kowalská and Chantal Bordes-Benayoun), and last not least various reciprocal relations and impacts between politics and othernesses (case studies by Jean-Francois Berdah, Linas Eriksonas, Charlotte Alston, and Blanka Říchová).
The volume is closed by two book reviews (both focussed on modern nation building processes from Miloš Řezník, reviewed by Blanka Říchová and Jitka Malečková, reviewed by Darina Martykánová), and also the report on the discussion during the workshop „Meeting the Other“ in 2002 by Michael Voříšek.