[Bilimsel Haber] New book: Reinstating the Ottomans

[Onur Inal]

From: Isa Blumi [ngapeja at rocketmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2011 3:26 PM

Dear H-Turk members:

I would like to bring to your attention my new book:

Reinstating the Ottomans: Alternative Balkan Modernities, 1800-1912
(Palgrave, 2011)

http://us.macmillan.com/reinstatingtheottomans

Product Description

This book is inspired by recent scholarship that reexamines the
dramatic changes affecting heterogeneous societies in late nineteenth
century empires. It expands the analysis of transformation beyond
conventional methods of studying "failed" empires - the emergence of
ethnonationalism, sharpened class and gendered sectarian differences -
and restates the need to guard against unnecessary anachronisms that
have infused post-World War I state-centric historiography. The issues
specific to the western Balkans constituted in 1820-1912 a confluence
of autonomous, ever-shifting polities that constantly interacted with
each other and the larger world in varying degrees through the filter
of an Ottoman administration, resulting in new kinds of political and
economic forces that ultimately account for a distinctive regional
experience of modernity.


Comments from Reviewers

"Reinstating the Ottomans will - and it should, I believe - provoke
strong reactions, but this is only a strength of the book because its
well-founded conclusions and meticulously established observations -
if not new facts - is a much needed challenge to any student not only
of the western Balkans but of the Ottoman Empire as a whole as well as
of south-eastern Europe. His historical scholarly methodology reflects
a strict observance of the rigorous basic rules of the modern
historical science, namely that the historian should show how things
actually happened. This is what Blumi does. The same basic rules also
require that the historian should refrain from judging the past. This
is the tendency Blumi takes to task when questioning the categories
used by the national historiography.  Blumi fruitfully applies
insights from social science and literary studies among others in his
analysis of the sources. This approach enables him to identify - and
'give a voice' to - those who were governed." - Mogens Pelt, Associate
Professor in International History at Saxo Institute, History Section,
University of Copenhagen

"This book beautifully traces the coincidences and personalities
during the crucial second half of the nineteenth century when the new
states emerged, and shows how the Ottoman state responded and how
states, borders, and bureaucracies descended across the Balkans. By
focusing on the regions which remained with the Ottoman Empire
longest, Blumi sketches a rich narrative of people who did not
identify as Albanians, Ottomans, or Muslims, but whose ambiguity of
identity was a defining mark of the region at least until the early
twentieth century. The book is not only a rewarding read for those
interested in the history of Balkans, but it also helps us understand
the present in this part of Europe better and forces us to take a hard
look at the seeming 'normality' of nations today." - Florian Bieber,
Professor for Southeast European Studies, University of Graz

"Isa Blumi masterfully questions the way Balkan history is often told;
instead of using national binaries, he revives the fluid affiliations
of those inhabitants of the Western Balkans that became residents of
Albania after 1912. His examination of the final years of the Ottoman
Empire in the Balkans is refreshing in its faithful recovery of the
conflicting experiences of individuals and communities facing
fundamental change. This is an excellent contribution to a growing
body of works that demonstrate the futility of searching for firm
national identities in the Ottoman Balkans and instead explore the
local and regional loyalties of the population." - Theodora
Dragostinova, Assistant Professor, Department of History, Ohio State
University


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