Aleš Iglič: ON THE CULTURAL HISTORY OF ALPINE AND PANNONIAN SLOVENES

146 Pages, hardcover

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^{Aleš Iglič – On the cultural history of Alpine and Pannonian Slovenes}

Dr. Aleš Iglič introduces a fresh wind into Slovene historiography, mainly as an heir of his wife’s grandfather, Dr. Niko Zupanič (1876–1961). With his skilful writing, he wants to shake the misguided and malicious notion that the state-building of Slovenes in the past centuries was less extensive than that of their Italian and German neighbors, which is a regretful consequence of the servility of many a past Slovene historian. Just as Zupanič in his time, Iglič builds on the past vast dissemination of Slovene names under the Alps, on the too often denied autochthony of the Slovene nobility and Slovene intellectuals, and on the (positive) turn brought about by the State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs a hundred years ago.

dr. Stanislav Južnič, historian and physicist

Book authors usually have some hidden idea, which they want to demonstrate and prove in their books. This book’s latent idea is that, as Iglič clearly shows, Slovenes have accomplished quite a lot throughout the centuries despite some tough periods, which gives them the right to their own identity and pride. He is particularly interested in the indicator that best defines a community in its homogeneity and sustainability, and for Iglič this indicator is language. Iglič guides the reader through different centuries, paying close attention to the Slovene language. In his writing, Iglič also shows the trajectory of the Slovene language in several periods of Germanic oppression, as for example in the final years of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, when the Germanic oppression of Slovenes increased significantly. Despite the pressures, illiteracy, as an indicator of a nation’s development, was very low. This book is an interesting contribution to Slovene history, spanning several centuries.

dr. Janez Jerovšek, sociologist and writer

In front of us is the English, translated and supplemented edition of the book by Aleš Iglič: On the History of Alpine Slovenes, which was originally published in 2018 at the Maribor Cultural Center. The Slovenian version is available in hardcover.