On Civilization's Edge

At the end of World War I, an eclectic group of Polish "civilizers" from border guards and urban planners to teachers and military settlers-descended upon a poor, war-torn, and multi-ethnic borderland that had previously been part of the Russian empire. On Civilization's Edge examines how fears of national weakness, competitions for local power, and mounting anxieties about the rise of Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union set the stage for Polish statesmen to assert their right to rule over the region's ethnic minorities.

Kathryn Ciancia is Associate Professor of History at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Preface: A Conversation
Introduction: On the Edge, In the World
Chapter 1: Democracy as Civilizing Mission
Chapter 2: The Integration Myth
Chapter 3: The Many Meanings of the Border
Chapter 4: Polish Towns? Jewish Towns?
Chapter 5: Depoliticizing the Volhynian Village
Chapter 6: Regionalism, or The Limits of Inclusion
Chapter 7: Thinking Technocratically
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography