G\u00f3rny\u2019s study deals with WWI political engagement of science with an eye on Eastern Europe between 1912 (the First Balkan War) and 1923. The writings of intellectuals from this region that subscribed to the tradition of \u2018national characterology\u2019 skillfully integrated the most modern science of the time: physical anthropology, psychiatry and anthropogeography. Consequently, neither in the intellectual standing of the authors, nor in the discursive strategies they used did the intellectuals\u2019 war in the East fundamentally deviate from its counterpart on the Western front. Yet, their liaison with politics proved to be even longer, harsher and more fateful than in the West. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBy bringing the European East (East Central Europe South-Eastern Europe, Russia) into the historiographical debate over the \u2018the war of the spirits\u2019 the study does in fact more than just broaden the geographical scope of current research. It substantially deepens our understanding of the European dimensions of the phenomenon in general \u2013 e.g. the interplay between transnational academic communication and the \u2018nationalization\u2019 of science, the transfers of academic paradigms and of people, the background and nature of cross-national scholarly disputes. At the same time, the comparative analysis allows us to understand East Central European and South-East European peculiarities. Here, the involvement of science in the processes of competitive nation- and state-building implied that \u2018the war of the spirits\u2019 started much earlier than 1914, and certainly did not end in 1918. Not least should I mention that this is a very well written book!\u201d \u2013 Prof. Dr. Michael G. M\u00fcller<\/p>\n\n\n\n