Book
Balkan Transitions to Modernity and Nation-States: Through the Eyes of Three Generations of Merchants (1780s-1890s)
(2013)
Abstract
In contrast to research on elites or “history from below,” this study offers an approach that can be called “mesohistory” – a collective social biography of the Balkan merchants. In foregrounding the voices of traders, this study sheds fresh light on multiethnic networks of social actors navigating multiple social, political, and economic systems – supporting and opposing various aspects of nationalist ideologies. Personal accounts humanize features of these “faceless” socially mediating groups. Merchants’ generation-specific perspectives on the economy, society, and state, both in times of war and peace, are analyzed against the backdrop of Balkan, Ottoman, and European history. The study captures a dialogue between primary and secondary sources and the major debates regarding nationalism, modernity, and the Ottoman legacy.
Keywords
- Balkan Peninsula -- History,
- Balkan Peninsula -- Social conditions,
- Balkan Peninsula -- Economic conditions,
- Balkan Peninsula -- History -- Sources
Disciplines
Publication Date
October, 2013
Publisher
Brill
Series
Balkan Studies Library
ISBN
9789004236417
Publisher Statement
Copyright 2013 Brill. All rights reserved
Citation Information
Evguenia Davidova. Balkan Transitions to Modernity and Nation-States: Through the Eyes of Three Generations of Merchants (1780s-1890s). Leiden and Boston(2013) Available at: http://works.bepress.com/evguenia-davidova/6/