Portraits of Galicia: Guidebooks from the Late Habsburg Empire To Interwar Poland

This thesis explores the portrayals of Galicia, a historical region with a particularly diverse population and complex local identity, through its geopolitical locations and historical narratives in the guidebooks of the late Habsburg empire and of interwar Poland. As a source that often endures multiple reeditions yet still maintains consistent information, guidebook is used to see how different states view and treat Galicia's diversity, fitting it into their mental landscape in relations to other regions and the rest of Europe. Its historical background is also utilized to emphasize certain aspects of the states. While Galicia is fit into the Austrian pursuit of a diverse empire, it stands out again in the Polish nation's idealized homogeneity. In seeking to understand the implications of the imperial structure and of nation-state, Galicia's portraits reveal how its diversity is presented differently in the subtle recommendations of guidebooks. Instead of tracing the history of Galicia, this inquiry traces the history of the ideas of Galicia. While the history of Galicia reveals the changes in society, governance, and beyond, the history of its ideas uncovers changes in characterizations, frustrations, and dreams. People's and states' perceptions of Galicia are entangled with the dichotomy between East and West, which still continues to this day.