Science Embattled

Book excerpt: Academics of modern, still emerging sciences were particularly involved in the so-called?war of the intellectuals?: an-thropology, (anthropo- )geography, ethnopsychology. The book tells the story of this engagement in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. 0Górny?s 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?national characterology? 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 strate-gies they used did the intellectuals? 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.