91Book review section – Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 71 (2022) (1) 83–92.DOI: 10.15201/hungeobull.71.1.8 Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 71 2022 (1) Vedran Duančić’s monograph represents a very sig- nificant and important contribution to investigating nation building processes in their connection with geographical knowledge, related to the context of South Slavic regions. The research is well situated in the in- terdisciplinary debate concerning the contribution of geographical knowledge and cartography in shaping the idea of nation and in naturalising the spatial dimension of the modern, territorial state, as well as in contributing to the personification of nation state, thus strengthening the bound between the territorial state and the national community. The most innovative contribution compared to the existing literature is the deep comparative analysis of geographical works produced by several figures of Serbian, Slovenian and Croatian geographers, such as the Croatian Filip Lukas (1871–1958) or the Slovenian Anton Melik (1890–1966). Thanks to this comparative analysis of different scholars, Duančić’s analysis goes well beyond the traditional and mainly exclusive focus on the Serbian geographer Jovan Cvijić. Moreover, con- necting all these figures and showing their educational background and theoretical approach, the author gives an important contribution to comprehending the pro- cesses of knowledge circulation related to geographical ideas in the first half of the 20th century. From the beginning of the book and in line with recent trends in international literature from Benedict Anderson (1986) to Guntram Herb (1997), Steven Seegel (2018) and Charles Withers (2001), Duančić stresses the role of geographers and geography in nation building processes, sustaining how far this “played an exceptional role in making and breaking interwar Yugoslavia” (p. 2). In his perspective, the different figures who at this time developed scientific studies in the field of geography and cartography, significantly contributed to the processes of integra- tion or – on the contrary – separation of the different ethnical and cultural components that characterised the Balkan region. This happened due to the geo- graphical skill, which enabled a homogeneous de- scription of physical and cultural landscapes, thus integrating, and reinforcing other historical and/or political narratives. On one side, geographical repre- sentation and narrations were aimed to stress the ter- ritorial unity of Yugoslavia, also in response to threat- ening politics of the neighbor countries – especially Germany, Hungary, and Italy. On the other side, vari- ous geographical perspectives between Yugoslavian geographers also reflected the political fragmenta- tion and the tensions between different Yugoslavian cultural entities, such as e.g., the ambition of a uni- fied and independent Croatia, as formulated by the Croatian geographer Filip Lukas. From a theoretical perspective, Duančić situates his reflection in the crossing and circulation of geographi- cal ideas at the time, specifically in the production of German language geography with its reflections on the different national geographies of Eastern Europe, notably in Poland with Eugeniusz Romer, in Hungary with Pál Teleki and, of course, in Serbia with Jovan Cvijić. The book is based on an extensive research and analysis of printed sources. In fact, primary sources are basically related to geographical works of academic geographers, mainly Yugoslavian and German and Austrian, but also some Polish, French and American works are taken into account. Despite the rich references to primary literature sources, the work considers and analyse limited archive sources, which could have shed better light on the relations and networks between scholars and the circulation of European geographical ideas in the Balkan. A second critical point of the book is the almost ne- glected comparative analysis with Italian geographi- cal works and Italian geography in general. Despite, as stated before, the author considers the danger rep- resented by Italian politics towards Yugoslavia and underlines the importance of geographical unity as a tool for political discourses, the book lacks a com- parative analysis of the methodologies that sustained Italian argumentation against the political and sci- Duančić, V.: Geography and Nationalist Visions of Interwar Yugoslavia. Cham, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020. 286 p. 92 Book review section – Hungarian Geographical Bulletin 71 (2022) (1) 83–92. entific discourse developed in the same period by Yugoslavian geographers. The book begins with a rich introductive chapter, that discusses international literature on nation build- ing and geographical contribution to nationalism, situating these discourses in the historical and politi- cal context of South Slavic regions at the beginning of the 20th century. The second chapter of the book is dedicated to the origin of Yugoslavian geography, especially in its relationship with German geography and, above all, in connection with the German geog- rapher Albrecht Penck’s theorisation and methodolo- gies. The author recalls the different figures, which animated Slovenian, Croatian and Serbian geography since the first decades of the 20th century. These fig- ures are put in connection with the further steps in the establishment of academic and governmental geo- graphical institutions in South Slavic lands. The third chapter presents and discusses the fundamental figure of the Serbian geographer Jovan Cvijić, in relation to the establishment of modern geography in academic studies. Under a scientific-theoretical point of view, Duančić analyses Cvijić’s understanding of geogra- phy, putting his interpretation close to the develop- ment of geomorphological studies, and stressing the analogies and differences with the German geogra- pher Friedrich Ratzel. Other aspects concern Cvijić’s political explanation of geographical unity, specifical- ly his national idea of a unified Serbia which was then applied to understand the whole Yugoslavian state. This intellectual process culminated with the publica- tion of the volume La Péninsule balkanique, Cvijić’s most renowned work, that became a masterpiece of Balkan geography and a manifesto of Yugoslavia political unity. Chapter 4 describes the geographical discourses that formed the base for establishing the Yugoslavian state, starting from Cvijić’s fundamental work. The narration also considers the role of differ- ent European powers in promoting and shaping the unification process of Yugoslavia. The fifth chapter introduces the topic of geopoli- tics and its reception by Yugoslavian scholars in the field of geography. In this context, it highlights the figure of the Croatian lawyer Ivo Pilar who firstly introduced political geographical issues to the Yugoslavian debate, particularly in relation with bor- der questions. The work of the Swedish geographer Rudolf Kjellén, regarded as the founding father of geopolitics, received much attention by Yugoslavian geographers. The last chapter comes back to the Croatian geographer Filip Lukas, whose work was already presented in Chapter 4, in order to discuss the new anti-Yugoslavian discourse he developed starting from the late 1920s. First, Lukas criticised on scientific basis the idea of a geographical unity of Yugoslavia, thus questioning its political project, even if he admitted the absence of a geographic unity of a Croatian state, as this also lacked natural boundaries. However, in sustaining the idea of a unified and inde- pendent Croatian state, the main point of Lukas’ theo- risation was anchored to a geographical principle. He recognised four different geographical regions inside Croatian territory, whose differences had shaped the character and the identity of Croatian people. His work became one of the most important intellectual contributions to establishing the pro-Fascist state of the Ustasha regime in the 1940s. One of the strong points of the book is the great reconstruction of the networks and circulation of ideas that sustained the emergence of geographical research in the Balkans. In particular, very interest- ing and original is the analysis of Lukas’ works and theories, presented for the first time in an interna- tional publication and connected to the theorizations of European and North American geographical ideas. Another remarkable contribution of the book con- cerns the debate about Eastern European national geographies in comparison with, and in relation to, Western European and specifically German language geography in the first half of the 20th century, as al- ready done by scholars such as Steven Seegel (2018) and Maciej Górny (2018). The book would have benefitted from a broader archival investigation of primary sources, especially to extend the analysis of intellectual relations and networks, as well as a deeper comparison with Italian geographical works and intellectual figures. Despite of that, the book is a very rich contribution to the debate on histories of geographies and their involve- ment in nation building processes. Matteo Proto1 R E F E R E N C E S Anderson, B.R. 1986. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. London, Verso. Górny, M. 2018. A vacuum to be filled: Central and Eastern Europe in the times of ‘geography with- out the Germans’. Studia Historiae Scientarium 17. 253–272. Herb, G.H. 1997. Under the Map of Germany: Nationalism and Propaganda, 1918–1945. London–New York, Routledge. Seegel, S. 2018. Map Men: Transnational Lives and Deaths of Geographers in the Making of East Central Europe. Chicago–London, The University of Chicago Press. Withers, C.W.J. 2001. Geography, Science and National Identity: Scotland since 1520. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. 1 University of Bologna, Department of History and Cultures, Bologna, Italy. E-mail: matteo.proto2@unibo.it Hungarian Geographical Bulletin Vol 71 Issue 1 (2022) - M. Proto: Duančić, V.: Geography and Nationalist Visions of Interwar Yugoslavia.