Switzerland: A Village History - Hardcover

Birmingham, D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0333800141 ISBN 13: 9780333800140

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000

Synopsis

This history of an alpine village illuminates the history of Switzerland from a rural perspective. It begins with the colonization of the Alps by Romanized Celtic peoples who came up from the plain to clear the wilderness, establish a tiny isolated monastic house and create a cattle economy which became famous for its cheeses. Over ten centuries the village, like the rest of Switzerland, has gone through the traumas of reformation and revolution as the society was transformed from the fief of a Catholic principality to the borough of a Protestant republic. In the nineteenth century poverty drove many highlanders to emigrate, but politics created the Swiss union government of 1848 whose single currency, unified postal service and integrated army slowly brought improved stability and prosperity. The twentieth century became an era of wealthy foreign tourism punctuated by the austerities imposed by European wars. By the end of the millennium alpine peasants had been socially integrated into a unified Switzerland and at last shared the prosperity which had emanated from the urban bankers and industrialists at the very independent geographical heart of Europe.

About this title

Review:

“An enthralling picture of the locality in its broader Swiss and international context. Birmingham’s mastery of the minutiae is coupled with an experienced understanding of the development of rural societies and of the complicated cultural, linguistic and political mix which was and is Switzerland. Vivid and delightful.”

-- English Historical Review

Synopsis:

Switzerland is a remarkable country half of whose territory lies in the Alps. The raising of cattle and the making of cheese eventually brought a modest wealth to the peasants but the destructive Napoleonic invasion brought revolution and poverty. The democratic unification of Switzerland created a common market and a single currency. This history of one Alpine village illustrates a one thousand year struggle for survival on the edge of this white wilderness.

About this edition

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0333800141
• ISBN 13: 9780333800140
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 244