Subject: Interesting book for boundarypointers!
Date: Dec 27, 2002 @ 17:40
Author: quadernet <quadernet@yahoo.com> ("quadernet <quadernet@...>" <quadernet@...>)
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"Boundaries: The Making of France and Spain in the Pyrenees",Peter
Sahins, University of California Press, 1991.

Catalan translation: "Fronteres i identitats: La formació d'Espanya i
França a la Cerdanya, s. XVII-XIX", Eumo Ed., 1993.

There is a french translation.

"Fascinating study of territories and national identities
The Pyrenees boundary between France and Spain began in 1659 as a
pretty arbitrary line, but over the course of the next two centuries
it was worked out as a national border locally. Sahlins studied the
Cerdanya, a valley in the Pyrenees split between France and Spain, and
shows how localism formed national identities that were necessary for
delineating the boundary.

According to Sahlins, the changes that took place to form the
France/Spain boundary were not only a formation of national identity,
but also a change in the governments' views of sovereignty, moving
from an idea of jurisdiction and dominion over subjects, to
territorial control. He shows how policy in the Cerdanya reflected
this change from jurisdiction to territory, the change from frontier
land to a true boundary.

Sahlins' book is a fascinating look at what makes a nation, and a
microcosmic study of the formation of the modern nation-state. His
study of the Cerdanya gives the book insights, not just into
governmental state-building, but also the construction of identity,
the necessity of boundaries for people to define themselves in
opposition to the other"

(from HallWorldHistory.com)