This new volume, by a team of international scholars, explores aspects
of population displacement and statehood at a crucial juncture in modern
European history, when the entire continent took on the aspect of a
'laboratory atop a mass graveyard' (Tomas Masaryk). The topic of
state-building has acquired a new actuality in recent years, following
the collapse of the USSR and the 'Soviet bloc' and in view of the
complex, often violent, territorial and ethnic conflicts which have
ensued. Many of the current dilemmas and tragedies of the region have
their origins in the aftermath of World War I, when newly independent
nation states, struggling to emerge from the rubble of the former
Russian empire, first sought to define themselves in terms of
population, territory and citizenship. 'Homelands' examines the
interactions of forced migration, state construction and myriad emerging
forms of social identity. It opens up a fresh perspective on
twentieth-century history and throws new light on present-day political,
humanitarian and scholarly issues of crucial concern to political
scientists, sociologists, geographers, refugee welfare workers,
policymakers and others.