"Recovered Territory is a valuable read for anyone seeking to understand how borderland cultures develop and change over time due to warfare, ethnic cleansing, and regime changes. Borderland scholars of Central Europe and elsewhere could benefit greatly from Polak-Springer's transnational approach to a regional culture." . H-Net

"Polak-Springer's case study of Upper Silesia is distinguished by his consistently transnational approach, which cleverly highlights the unexpected overlaps (and parallel shortcomings) of irredentists on both the German and Polish sides." . German History

"Recovered Territory makes a substantial contribution to the existing literature. With its focus on Upper Silesia, [it] provides a good entrée for nonspecialists into the complexities of this history, even as the sophistication of Polak-Springer's argument will be of great interest to specialists." . Journal of Modern History

".a stimulating, well-informed book that contains many precise observations and statements." . Journal of East Central European Studies

"Polak-Springer is an excellent historian whose mastery of Polish and German primary and secondary sources is perhaps unequaled, and this book will be of interest to historians working in a variety of fields." . American Historical Review

"The strength of the book lays in its well-defined thesis, a coherent methodological framework, and rich factual narrative. Written in clear language and bereft of jargon, it is easy to follow and therefore, would inspire interest not only among academics, but also among lay readers. Based on an impressive array of primary and secondary sources, Recovered Territory shows the benefits of a cultural approach to political history, analyzing the interaction between official policies and popular mindsets." . Slavic Review

"While Polak-Springer shows the entangled histories of German and Polish nationalism and emphasizes the importance of national indifference in Upper Silesia, his most significant contribution lies in the continuities he draws from the 1920s to the early 1950s. he has written a fine book based on extensive research in German and Polish archives." . Central European History

"With it tight focus on the thirty-odd years in which Upper Silesia experienced an especially dramatic series of regime changes, Recovered Territories might be recommended as the best single introduction to the region's recent history and its implications for our understanding of nationalization in 20th-century Europe. In addition to being an impressive piece of research, the book is also clearly written and engagingly presented, with maps providing crucial orientation and a large number of images illuminating the discussion of various landmarks." . Sehepunkte

"If the twentieth century was the century of nationalism, ethnic cleansing, and genocide, it was not, as Peter Polak-Springer persuasively argues, the century of successful nationalization. Writing about a critical flashpoint of nationalist conflict in the first half of the twentieth century-Upper Silesia-Polak-Springer analyzes the creative strategies employed by German and Polish nationalists under a variety of regimes to persuade locals and the outside world that the region was indeed German or Polish. Ironically, as Polak-Springer demonstrates, a century of such activism-and often violence-has repeatedly recreated regional, situational, and non-national forms of identification among Upper Silesians themselves." . Pieter Judson, European University Institute, Florence

"This book takes an innovative approach, utilizing types of sources which have not been employed by other historians studying the German-Polish industrial borderland of Upper Silesia in this period. It provides a new perspective on the history of this region in the interwar and wartime periods, and a lot of the analysis is very impressive." . Hugo Service, University of York

"Polak-Springer is the first in the English language to have analyzed the ethnicities of Upper Silesia and thereby brought to light just how nuanced the ethnic issues could be in east-central Europe, almost all with a dollop of prejudice thrown in. The author has added to our understanding of this region and done so in a remarkably even-handed manner." . Sebastian Siebel-Achenbach, University of Waterloo