Spring/Summer 2005 - University of Toronto Press Publishing

HISTORYGaliciaA Multicultured LandEdited by Christopher Hann andPaul Robert MagocsiCross Culture and FaithThe Life and Work of James Mellon MenziesLinfu DongHabsburg Galicia was an area in central Europecovering territory presently occupied by Poland andUkraine that was distinctive for its multi-ethniccharacter. With the unravelling of the Austro-Hungarian Empire following the First World War, anew political map of Europe emerged, one based onthe principle of the nation-state. The very conceptof the nation-state, however, was problematic inculturally pluralistic regions like Galicia.The essays in this volume examine Galiciabeyond the traditional paradigm of national history,in an effort to better understand the region as aplace where different ethnic communities – Poles,Ukrainians, Jews, Austro-Germans – lived in peacefulco-existence. As expansion of the EuropeanUnion proceeds, as migration becomes increasinglyprevalent, and as the very concept of the nationstateis called into question, a look back to see howcultural diversity was managed in a pre-nationalistage is of more than antiquarian interest. The contributorsto this multidisciplinary volume pursue awide range of approaches to shed fresh light on thisunique region.Christopher Hann is a director of the Max-Planck-Institut für Ethnologische Forschung inHalle/Saale, Germany.Paul Robert Magocsi is a professor in theDepartment of History and the Department ofPolitical Science and the chair of the UkrainianStudies Program at the University of Toronto.James Mellon Menzies (1885–1957) was aCanadian engineer, Presbyterian missionary, andarchaeologist active in China in the 1920s and1930s. In a tradition that saw archaeology as ameans of gathering artefacts for the collections ofWestern museums, Menzies believed in collectingfor the people of China. He also saw his archaeologicalwork as an extension of his missionary work,connecting, through his discoveries, the religiousbeliefs of ancient China to those of evangelicalChristianity.In Cross Culture and Faith, Linfu Dong shedsnew light on the modern encounter between Chinaand the West through Menzies’s life, work, andthought. He elucidates the difficult ‘negotiation’processes that Menzies endured on multiple levelsand with multiple forces, including Chinese nationalism,Western imperialism, the evangelicalMission, and his own personal interest in Chinesearchaeology within that world.Despite his belief in assuring Chinese artefactsremained in China, some of Menzies’s personal collectionwas donated to the Royal Ontario Museumin Toronto and to the Art Gallery of GreaterVictoria in British Columbia. This has assured hisplace in the cultural memory of both East and West– appropriate, since his life so often straddled thetwo worlds.Linfu Dong is an associate professor in the School ofManagement at Ocean University of China,Qingdao.Approx. 260 pp / 6 x 9 / January 20056 halftones; 1 mapCloth ISBN 0-8020-3943-X £32.00 $50.00 EPaper ISBN 0-8020-3781-X £20.00 $29.95 CApprox. 370 pp / 6 x 9 / May 200524 halftonesCloth ISBN 0-8020-3869-7 £42.00 $65.00 E39