Journal of Church and State

"This year marks the twentieth anniversary of the publication of Maria Todorova’s Imagining the Balkans (1997), a seminal study that explored the ontology of the Balkans and elucidated the ways in which an otherwise neutral geographic appellation was gradually transformed into an insidious stereotype and set of popular myths. Her work unleashed a procession of studies of “Balkanism,” or the Balkans as construct, which collectively succeeded in laying to rest these myths. The book under review fits this mold and asks us once again to question the traditional Western narrative vis-à-vis the Balkans: namely, as a region characterized by endemic ethnic and religious violence. All in all, the chapters in this book are well written and thoughtfully considered. The book’s interdisciplinary approach is also one of its strongest attributes."
Reviewed book: 
Editor: 
Theodora Dragostinova
Yana Hashamova
ISBN: 
978-963-386-133-2
cloth
$90.00 / €79.00 / £71.00