K československo-poľskému sporu o Oravu a Spiš

This article discusses a recent Palgrave Macmillan monograph on an internationally little-known Czechoslovak-Polish dispute over former Upper Hungarian provinces of Orava (Árva) and Spiš (Szépes, Zips), partitioned in 1920. The bone of contention between Prague and Warsaw for almost three decades to come, closely related to the problem of Teschen (Těšín, Cieszyn), amassed problems for local population and administration and regularly became an issue of national and international politics. The study by Marcel Jesenský is a daring attempt to present the topic in its complexity and full time-span for international audience. Albeit it offers multiarchival research and some interesting, rarely articulated viewpoints, the book seems to be something of an overstrech. Heuristics displays severe lacunae, reference to up-to-date research is unsatisfying, even terminological problems arise. This state of affairs results, in the present reviewers´ opinion, in a surprisingly long row of various errors and inaccuracies.