Switzerland: A Village History

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"Switzerland: A Village History is an account of an Alpine village that illuminates the broader history of Switzerland. The Swiss nation was founded in 1848 through the union of two dozen small republics. Yet Switzerland's enduring foundation remains the three thousand boroughs to which the Swiss people feel they truly belong." "The story of Chateau-d'Oex in the western highland of Gruyere begins with the colonization of the Alps by Romanized Celtic peoples who came from the plain to clear the wilderness, established a tiny monastic house, and created a dairy economy that became famous for its cheeses. Over ten centuries the village, like the rest of Switzerland, went through the traumas of religious reformation and political revolution. A single currency, a unified postal service, and eventually an integrated army brought improved stability and prosperity to the union of small republics." "The evolution of this ancient grazing and forest economy included the rise of the legal profession to keep track of complex deeds, grazing allotments, and animal rights-of-way. Switzerland's eventual privatization of communal grazing land drove many highlanders to emigrate to the European plains and overseas to the Americas. The twentieth century brought wealth from foreign tourism to Switzerland, punctuated by austerities imposed by Europe's wars, Alpine peasants were integrated into Swiss union society and began at last to share in some of the prosperity flowing from urban industry." David Birmingham replaces the mythology and patriotic propaganda that too often have passed for Swiss history with an account of the rivalries and local loyalties that actually make up Swiss history. Switzerland: A Village History provides a new look at a thousand-year span of Switzerland's history that depicts the major changes as well as the intimate details of daily life in a peasant community.

SYNOPSIS

A historian who lived in Switzerland as a child and returned as a visiting scholar provides a balanced perspective on the country's 1000-year history. Basing his work partly on newly discovered archives in his home village, Birmingham addresses Swiss periods of prosperity as well as early inter-republic strife, post-World War II national self-doubts, and provincial interests that kept it from joining the European Union. He includes b&w photos, maps, a chronology and glossary. First published in the US in 2000 by St. Martin's Press. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

FROM THE CRITICS

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