The Alps, with their thousands of mountain peaks, are considered the epitome of nature in Europe. How do people view this nature? Is it also perceived and revered as a religious phenomenon, and if so, to what extent? This is the central question of this paper. For theoretical classification, I use Bron Taylor's pioneering study on Dark Green Religion, first published in 2010. For the empirical assessment, I focus on three episodes that took place in Italy between 2021 and 2023. These include the attempted sanctification of a mountain in the Gran Paradiso National Park, a UN mountain celebration at the Holy See in Rome, and finally, a public controversy over summit crosses. They illustrate a remarkable variety of debates and voices that can be heard on this topic today which can only be understood when viewed against their historical background. The Alps have long been part of Christian countries sharing the religion's problematic relationship with nature. How this relationship has changed in recent times can be assessed by closely observing the statements made by the actors in this field.

Path dependence theory emerged in the mid-1980s in the United States as a response to mathematized economics. In the 2000s, many social sciences adopted its basic assumptions. They changed certain focal points but tried to continue the theoretical rigor in their own fields. At the general level, the path dependence movement operated with the slogan "History Matters." Historians, however, have so far only taken cautious note of the genuine temporal theory. Focusing on the German-speaking area, this article examines some motives of that reaction and possible ways to deal with the interdisciplinary input. It argues that historical scholarship can benefit in various ways from an increased engagement with path dependence theory.

Since the emergence of scientific disciplines in the 19th century, geography and history have had an undefined relationship with each other. Conventions of subject-specific responsibility have developed, but in detail the separation is difficult, and the more the boundaries between the two disciplines are emphasised, the more tempting it sometimes is to cross them. A prominent example of this interdisciplinary tension and challenge is the relationship between geographical structures and certain forms of state formation. In scholarship, Swiss history is routinely associated with the Alps. Could one imagine this history without mountains? In the present article, I argue that it is important to analyse the relationships in all their complexity and not to be guided by general assumptions. To do this, one must consult various genres of literature. In this way, the self-evident may suddenly require explanation.

The Alps, with their thousands of mountain peaks, are considered the epitome of nature in Europe. How do people view this nature? Is it also perceived and revered as a religious phenomenon, and if so, to what extent? This is the central question of this paper. For theoretical classification, I use Bron Taylor’s pioneering study on Dark Green Religion, first published in 2010. For the empirical assessment, I focus on three episodes that took place in Italy between 2021 and 2023. These include the attempted sanctification of a mountain in the Gran Paradiso National Park, a UN mountain celebration at the Holy See in Rome, and finally, a public controversy over summit crosses. They illustrate a remarkable variety of debates and voices that can be heard on this topic today which can only be understood when viewed against their historical background. The Alps have long been part of Christian counties sharing the religion’s problematic relationship with nature. How this relationship has changed in recent times can be assessed by closely observing the statements made by the actors in this field.

This article compares two studies on small/minor literatures: one by Fabienne Gilbertz on Luxembourgish in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and one by Clà Riatsch on Rhaeto-Romanic in the Swiss Confederation. The design and the argument of the article are based on two methodological considerations. First, both studies take a fairly comprehensive view of their literatures, thereby taking advantage of the benefits that studying small/minor literatures has over studying major literatures. Knowledge of a significant percentage of texts from personal reading and experience can be important for many questions. Second, the two studies differ in their emphasis of contextual and textual components. Gilbertz’s focus is on the sociolinguistic context, Riatsch focuses on formal literary analysis. The juxtaposition of the two cases aims to examine the effects of the chosen method on the assessment of the epigonism and repetitiveness or creativity of the respective literature. These are key judgments in the area. In this way, the article addresses a topic that is particularly problematic in postcolonial studies – the role of formal text analysis and aesthetics.

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Times and Spaces of Noble Kinship (France, Sixteenth-Eighteenth Centuries) Elie Haddad

This Special Issue on ‘Images of Nature’ in the longue durée has its origins in a historical conference on ‘Nature’ at the University of Geneva in the summer of 2022 (6th Swiss History Days, 29 June–1 July 2022) [...]

Until World War I, many cultural ideas travelled from dominant Europe to the «New World». As the United States rose to become the leading world power in the 20 century, the main direction of transatlantic exchange reversed itself. The American idea of wilderness, at first romantically and religiously charged, found its way to Europe, as linguistic and other indicators have shown since the 1980s. The idea of the modern wolf, ecologically valuable and worthy of protection, emerged in the early postwar period, primarily in North America. The association of the two was the result of a historical coincidence; together, wolf and wilderness gained importance. In the cultural sphere of Europe, the association of wolf and wilderness was largely maintained. In the political sphere, on the other hand, various changes occurred.

Abstract Climbing, skiing, and hiking are widely popular touristic activities with roots in the early days of tourism history. This chapter traces the complex global development of “Alpine” or “mountain” tourism from the early modern period to the present day. The first section offers a short glance at mountain cults in Asia during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The second focuses on Europe during its expansion in the long nineteenth century, and follows the evolution of the Alpine tourism model. The last section deals with the global development of mountain-related sports in the twentieth century, when the Alpine model was used and refashioned in many ways.

In his much-discussed work Beyond Nature and Culture, anthropologist Philippe Descola gives central importance to the “great divide” between nature and culture in European history. According to him, the “naturalism” created by this gap is at the heart of Western modernity and distinguishes it from the “others” on the planet. One can certainly agree with Descola that the nature-culture dualism cannot claim universal validity. However, the extent of the “great divide” created in Europe by early modern “rationalist” scholarship remains unclear. Methodologically, one should not limit oneself to the narrow history of science and philosophy, but also examine the linguistic, religious, and social history.

This is the first Special Issue of the online journal “histories”, launched in 2020 [...]

“Time” and “temporality” are difficult and central notions for historical scholarship. They exist in many varieties, which renders generalizations challenging. An interesting attempt has been made by US-scholar William H. Sewell in his Logics of History. Social Theory and Social Transformation (2005). He qualifies historical temporality as fateful, contingent, complex, eventful, and heterogeneous. It is rare for a historian to be so explicit. Sewell was inspired by discussions with sociologists and anthropologists during his transition from social to cultural history in the 1980 and 1990s. This article examines the question whether and how the change of the intellectual environment impacted the theoretical outcome. Are Sewell’s attributes to historical temporality plausible for historical scholarship in general, or do they reflect the boundary work of a particular group?

This chapter deals with the historical perception of two major ecosystems – deserts and mountains – in transition to Western modernity. I will argue that, from 1750 to 1850, the perception underwent a process of divergence between the two systems, which is significant in its own right and can offer some clues as to general factors underlying environmental perception. Alexander von Humboldt’s book Ansichten der Natur mit wissenschaftlichen Erläuterungen (“Views of Nature with Scientific Annotations”) is used for illustrative and certain analytical purposes. The book, published by the author three times in different editions (1808, 1826 and 1849), belongs to the famous pieces of nature writing of the 19th century. When it was first published, however, it received less-than-flattering reviews. A critic in the leading Göttingische Gelehrte Anzeigen stated that reading Humboldt’s book had been both pleasant and instructive. Nevertheless, the gratification would have been greater if its language had been simpler. “The poetic prose seems to be unfortunate in several respects,” namely for the learned audience and for the treated subjects “which are inapt to provoke poetic enthusiasm.” Moreover, the author tries to establish relationships between totally different things. “To our mind, the true researching genius manifests itself not so much through the establishment of resemblances between unequal objects as through the disclosure of the characteristic features of both single objects and entire species.” Instead of familiarising the audience with the plains of South America, observed in his travels, he brings them together with deserts in Asia, Africa, and even with heaths of European coastlands. This will certainly cause some readers to consider these very different surfaces as similar.1

The term “tourist” appeared in English in the late eighteenth century and spread to other European languages in the first half of the nineteenth century. The corresponding sector first appeared in German as Fremdenverkehr. Since the 1970s, the neutral, internationally used term “tourism” has become the standard for the mobility industry. The industry is unique and in some aspects unlike any other industry. Foreign buyers of tourist services are not only customers of specific tourism companies, but also guests of tourist regions. They move within an environment created by others and sometimes appropriate the public space of this area, especially by participating in the expansive mass tourism. This has recently led to the emergence of the term “overtourism”. It is associated with a need to reduce the burden of some fashionable tourist regions caused by an excessive influx of tourists. The Alps are one of those regions in which tourism developed as an industry already in the nineteenth century. The number of tourists in this European mountain range — initially especially in Switzerland — grew considerably particularly after 1850. The period was marked by a rapid development of infrastructure in the form of modern forms of transport, accommodation and other services. Tourism became an indicator and factor in civic “progress”. Yet at the same time there appeared voices questioning this development. The author of the present article discusses three examples from various spheres, periods and regions illustrating the history of the growth of tourism in the Alps. The first part is devoted to literature, specifically to a satirical journal of a journey to Switzerland, published for the first time in 1880. The second part deals with science, drawing mainly on the work of a French geographer and her writings from 1956–1971. The third part concerns tourism policy in recent years in a fashionable Austrian village in the Alps.