Mary Neuburger, Director of the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies and Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin

“Sugarland offers a substantial and original contribution to the fields of Albanian and East European history and beyond. It brings a unique cultural history of a commodity—in this case sugar beets, and a micro-history of a region (Maliq plain) as a way of asking and answering questions that touch on a wide range of issues about modernization, development, and communist transformation. The work offers poignant, philosophical moments for pondering the past as it lays before us now—it’s detritus and rubble. Hoxha’s book is groundbreaking, original, and a joy to read.”