Tuesday, April 26, 2011

The Reginald Zelnik Book Prize in History

The Reginald Zelnik book prize is for any genre of history and does include Eastern and Central Europe as well as Eurasian studies. The deadline for submission is May 6.

Rules of eligibility for the Reginald Zelnik Book Prize in History competition are as follows:
  • The copyright date inside the book must list the previous calendar year as the date of publication (the book must have been published in 2010 to be eligible for the 2011 competition)
  • The book must be originally in the form of a monograph, preferably by a single author, or by no more than two authors
  • Authors may be of any nationality as long as the work is originally published in English
  • Works may deal with any area of Russia, Eastern Europe, or Eurasia
  • The competition is open to works of scholarship in history
  • Textbooks, collections, translations, bibliographies, and reference works are ineligible
Nominating Instructions
Send one copy of eligible monograph to each Committee member (see addresses below) AND to the ASEEES main office. Nominations must be received no later than May 6, 2011.

Submissions should be clearly marked "Reginald Zelnik Book Prize Nomination." If you would like to receive an acknowledgment that your nomination was received please enclose with the copy mailed to the ASEEES main office a note with your e-mail address or a self-addressed stamped envelope or a postcard.
Henry Reichman, California State University East Bay; Committee Chair, 2009-2012
(mailing address):
Henry Reichman
1507 Beverly Place
Albany, CA 94706
Alice Freifeld, University of Florida; 2009-2011
(mailing address):
Alice Freifeld
Department of History
University of Florida
POB 117320
Gainesville, Florida 32611-8525
Marianne Kamp, University of Wyoming; 2009-2011
(mailing address):
Marianne Kamp
University of Wyoming
Department of History, Dept 3198
1000 E. University Ave.
Laramie, WY 82071

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

New Book: Theodora Dragostinova, Between Two Motherlands

Cornell University Press

http://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/cup_detail.taf?ti_id=9922

Between Two Motherlands
Nationality and Emigration among the Greeks of Bulgaria, 1900-1949
Theodora Dragostinova
978-0-8014-4945-1
45.00

In 1900, some 100,000 people living in Bulgaria—2 percent of the
country’s population—could be described as Greek, whether by
nationality, language, or religion. The complex identities of the
population—proud heirs of ancient Hellenic colonists, loyal citizens
of their Bulgarian homeland, members of a wider Greek diasporic
community, devout followers of the Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul,
and reluctant supporters of the Greek government in Athens—became
entangled in the growing national tensions between Bulgaria and Greece
during the first half of the twentieth century.

In Between Two Motherlands, Theodora Dragostinova explores the
shifting allegiances of this Greek minority in Bulgaria. Diverse
social groups contested the meaning of the nation, shaping and
reshaping what it meant to be Greek and Bulgarian during the slow and
painful transition from empire to nation-states in the Balkans. In
these decades, the region was racked by a series of upheavals (the
Balkan Wars, World War I, interwar population exchanges, World War II,
and Communist revolutions). The Bulgarian Greeks were caught between
the competing agendas of two states increasingly bent on establishing
national homogeneity.

Based on extensive research in the archives of Bulgaria and Greece, as
well as fieldwork in the two countries, Dragostinova shows that the
Greek population did not blindly follow Greek nationalist leaders but
was torn between identification with the land of their birth and
loyalty to the Greek cause. Many emigrated to Greece in response to
nationalist pressures; others sought to maintain their Greek identity
and traditions within Bulgaria; some even switched sides when it
suited their personal interests. National loyalties remained fluid
despite state efforts to fix ethnic and political borders by such
means as population movements, minority treaties, and stringent
citizenship rules. The lessons of a case such as this continue to
reverberate wherever and whenever states try to adjust national
borders in regions long inhabited by mixed populations.

Theodora Dragostinova is Assistant Professor of History at The Ohio
State University.