Seventeen papers explore the cultural identity of the Netherlands' Rhine-Meuse region during the "long" 19th century (between the Congress of Vienna and the First World War). The central theme
unifying the collection is "the mutual interaction between, on the one hand, religion, the historical canon of forms and the image of history to be conveyed and, on the other, the perception of
the regional in its relation to the formation of the modern European nation states." The contributions are organized in to four sections examining tensions between the formation of the modern
nation state and growing awareness of regional and transregional differences, the institutionalization of artistic formation and its relation to ecclesiastical art and architecture, the
important centers of religious art in the Rhine-Meuse region, and key figures who facilitated interregional cultural exchange. Distributed in the US by Cornell University Press. Eight of the
papers are in English and nine are in German. Annotation 穢2009 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
