In new regional history, national states are not seen to play a special role. Regions are understood as evolutionary processes in which time and space—history and geography—are connected in research questions. To illustrate the entanglement of time and space in various forms and ages, this volume explores regional history from around the globe. The editor’s review of the various works written under the heading of regional history serves as an introduction to this theme.
This volume shows how historical events and changes have influenced the reproduction of regions in Czechia; it will also highlight how regional identities were manifested in a cultural form in romantic operas of post-Napoleonic Europe. The historically rich West Wits Line gold-mining region in the West Rand of South Africa is also examined within a regional-history framework with the broad theme of ecohealth and well-being. Through case studies, the volume also explores the history of governance and planning in New Zealand’s largest city-region, Auckland, as well as the recent economic history of the State of Mato Grosso in Brazil. Finally, it also brings the idea of regional history to the most personal level of historical consciousness, by examining the experiential shaping of home in the broader meaning of Heimat, as a question of belonging somewhere – both in time and in space.
