The Making of a Nation in the Balkans

✍ Scribed by Roumen Daskalov

• Publisher: Central European University Press
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 296
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

The nineteenth century was the epoch of nation building for the Bulgarians under Ottoman rule. In this book, comparisons and analogies are made between the Bulgarian Revival and other regions, epochs, ideological trends, and events. These latter are taken from two major areas—Western Europe ("Renaissance," "Enlightenment," "Romanticism," the French Revolution, and national liberation movements), and Russia (the "agrarian question," "populism" and "utopian socialism," "revolutionary democrats," and the Russian Revolution of 1905). Historical facts about the Revival were instrumentalized for political purposes, such as the fostering of national and state loyalties through the reproduction of identities, or, directly, as the legitimating/contesting of a current political regime under the guise of disputes over historical legacy. Ideological mobilization took place in the form of nationalism, right-wing authoritarianism (shading into fascism), and communism. The author sets in relief some of the mechanisms and logic of the two grand narratives under the sign of nationalism, and of Marxism.

✦ Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction. From Metaphor toward Historical Epoch
Chapter One. Meanings of the Revival I: National and Cultural
Chapter Two. Meanings of the Revival II: Economic and Social
Excursus on Periodization
Chapter Three. Classes and Class Struggles
Chapter Four. Paths of the Revival and National Heroes
Chapter Five. The April Uprising, the Russo-Turkish Liberation War, and the Revolution
Chapter Six. The Continuing Revival: Symbolic Struggles and Images
Epilogue. The Bulgarian Revival as a National Myth
Glossary
Transliteration
Bibliography
Index