Politics of Cultural Retreat

This study recounts how an international cohort of Austrian officials administered Galicia from the time of its annexation from Poland-Lithuania in 1772 up until the beginning of Polish autonomy in 1867. The author examines the interactions between these German-speaking bureaucrats and the local Galician population of Poles, Ukrainians, and Jews, and reveals how Enlightenment-inspired theories of modernity and supra-national uniformity essentially backfired, ultimately bringing about results that starkly contradicted the original intentions and ideals of the imperial governors.