Between Science and Politics: Interpreting the Past in Paul Robert Magocsi’s Book, “With Their Backs to the Mountains. A History of Carpathian Rus’ and Carpatho-Rusyns”

Abstract

The review article answers the question of what kind of interpretation of the past we are dealing with in Paul Robert Magocsi’s work Pod osłoną gór. Dzieje Rusi Karpackiej i Karpatorusinów (With Their Backs to the Mountains. A History of Carpathian Rus’ and Carpatho-Rusyns). The article focuses on the meanings extracted and assigned by its author and refers to the theoretical foundations of the book – the categories of nation and geography supplemented by the categories of demographic statistics and language. The analysis leads to the conclusion that the coherence and persuasiveness of the book’s argument have become its dominant element. Among other things, this is why we get there the ethnonym Carpatho-Rusyns, indirectly extracted from the name of the territory of Carpathian Rus' inhabited by the community that marks the borders of this territory.