Regional Identity And Economic Change

The current debate about the best methods of European organization - central or regional - is influenced by an awareness of regional identity, which offers an alternative to the rigidities of organization by nation-state. Yet where does the sense of regionalism come from? What are the distinctive factors that transform a geographical area into a particular 'region'?

Tom Scott addresses these questions in this study of one apparently 'natural' region - the Upper Rhine - between 1450 and 1600. This region has been divided between three countries and so historically marginalized, yet Dr Scott is able to trace the existence of a sense of historical regional identity cutting across national frontiers, founded on common economic interests.

But that identity was always contingent and precarious, neither 'natural' nor immutable. Review: Tom Scott has written a learned, well-reasoned, and sophisticated piece of scholarship with a superbly detailed bibliography. This book offers much to someone interested in the Upper Rhine and in economic development in preindustrial Europe.

Sixteenth Century Journal