Read Online Whose Bosnia? Nationalism and Political Imagination in the Balkans 18401914 Edin Hajdarpasic 9781501735813 Books

Product details Paperback 288 pages Publisher Cornell University Press; Reprint edition (April 15, 2019) Language English ISBN-10 1501735810

Whose Bosnia? Nationalism and Political Imagination in the Balkans 18401914 Edin Hajdarpasic 9781501735813 Books Reviews

• Despite its understated and academically-stilted title, this work succeeds admirably both as an empirical study of the South Slavs and as a contribution to understanding modern national movements everywhere. Edin Hajdarpasic derives from his empirical investigation a compelling revisionist narrative of nineteenth century national movements in the central lands of the former Yugoslavia.
  
  Most impressively, he further proposes a sweeping reconceptualization of modern national movements, with global implications. His work evidences many years of exhaustive research, hard thinking, and an iconoclast’s willingness to challenge the prevailing assumptions of existing works. It should change the way we think of the ubiquitous nationalist movements that so powerfully influence our lives and times.
  To be clear, this work is not a study of identity or national loyalties, although it may profoundly impact future studies of those topics. Hajdarpasic’s immediate focus is the tangible, verifiable phenomena of national movements, particularly the activists who led them and the ideas they espoused.
  
  Still, it is not for the casual reader seeking an entertaining late-night read. He dives headlong into the thick and thorny historical underbrush to explore the shared origins and commonalities of the region’s movements and the fraught relations among them over time. While devoting appropriate attention to Serb, Croat, Bosniak (formerly Bosnian Muslim), and Yugoslav national projects in the nineteenth century, he also considers less durable movements that embraced Illyrian, South Slav, Ottoman, and Habsburg ideals.
  
  This is a compelling read for anyone seeking to understand the omnipresent but often elusive phenomenon of nationalism in the modern era.
  Based on his first-time author’s inaugural book-length publication, one can easily see him becoming one of the most influential historians of our time.