Balkan Transitions to Modernity and Nation-States—Through the Eyes of Three Generations of Merchants (1780s-1890s)

This is a multi-generational study of how Ottoman merchants in the Balkans navigated the changing social and political landscapes wrought by the emergence of nation-states in the Balkans and the politics of Ottoman decline. Davidova (international studies, Portland State U.) focuses on the experiences of three generations of one family and places their story in the broader milieu of the diverse merchant social class. She applies network analysis to the reconstruction of the professional, family, and social strategies of the merchant class as they relate to such issues as the relationship between economic and political behavior; the impact of modernization on different social groups and generations; the role of language and religion in shaping social, national, and professional identities; the functioning of multiethnic networks; and the role of gender among the Ottoman merchant class. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Evguenia Davidova, Ph.D (1998) in History, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, is Associate Professor of International Studies at Portland State University. She has published extensively on the nineteenth-century socio-economic history of the Ottoman Balkans.