Entangled Paths Towards Modernity
Contextualizing socialism and nationalism in the Balkans
Augusta Dimou is academic associate
researcher at the Institute of Slavic Studies, University
of Leipzig, Germany.
The book is a study in comparative intellectual history
and discusses how socialist ideology emerged as an option
of political modernity in the Balkans of the late nineteenth
and early twentieth century.
Focusing on how technologies of ideological transfer
and adaptation work, the book examines the introduction
and contextualization of international socialist paradigms
in the Southeast European periphery. At its core is
the presentation of three case studies (Serbia, Bulgaria
and Greece), intertwined at times through similar, but
also divergent paths. Each case aspires to tell a different
and yet complementary story with respect to the issue
of modernity and socialism. The book analyses the introduction
of socialism against the background and in conjunction
to other prominent options of political modernity such
as nationalism, liberalism and agrarianism.
Contents
Acknowledgments I. Introduction II
Intellectuals III The ambiguities of modernity (Serbia)
IV Caught up in the contradictions of modernity (Bulgaria)
V Modernity without socialism (Greece) VI Epilogue List
of abbreviations Index
Note: A separately printed Bibliography belongs
to this title. Customers who miss this addendum will
receive one free of charge upon request indicating postal
address, sent to ceupress@ceu.hu
"Comparative studies of Balkan history are still
rare despite the analytical benefi ts of comparing phenomena
in societies that shared a lot of structural features
but also differed in important respects. Augusta Dimou’s
book on the emergence of socialism in the late nineteenth-
and early twentieth-century Balkans is therefore a welcome
addition to the comparative study of the Balkans. Dimou
lays out her main research interest on the opening
page: “How was the international socialist project
‘translated’ . . . in the context of Southeastern
Europe?”
Dimou succeeds in making her point, not least by her
comparative perspective. At the end she stresses the
contribution that socialism, before communists eventually
came to power, could have made in the Balkans—not
only as a modernizing but also as an internationalist
idea that injected new visions of justice into political
life. The monograph is of importance for specialists
in Balkan history and those with an interest in the
history of socialism. It can certainly be used by graduate
students." - Slavic Review
"Dimou has a three-fold analytical strategy: firstly
to examine the correlation between the Balkan context
and the socialist ideology; secondly, to discuss the
process of transfer and adaptation of socialist paradigms
and thirdly, to explore the potential dynamic that socialism
generated as a political option in the three South East
European societies. The book is cleverly planned and
skillfully accomplished. The three case studies follow
chronologically one after the other, illuminating the
porblem of the transfer and adaptation of the socialist
paradigm at different stages in the three different
countries.
This is a rich book, profoundly and thoroughly researched,
covering a considerable portion of modern Balkan history.
The range of the subject is impressive; the narrative
is presented with great erudition and sophistication...
the book is Balkanology at its best: each of the stories
can be measured and properly understood against the
others, like for instance Bulgarian agrarianism versus
the Serb Radicals, or Blagoev versus Skleros."
- Études Balkaniques
2009
450 pages + 20 pages bibliography
ISBN 978-963-9776-38-8 cloth $55.00 / €44.95 /
£40.00
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