TY - BOOK ID - 30743895 TI - Balkan transitions to modernity and nation-states PY - 2013 VL - v. 6 SN - 18776272 SN - 1283717050 9004236635 9004236414 9789004236639 9781283717052 9789004236417 PB - Leiden Boston Brill DB - UniCat KW - Balkan Peninsula -- Economic conditions. KW - Balkan Peninsula -- Politics and government. KW - Balkan Peninsula -- Social conditions. KW - Business & Economics KW - Economic History KW - Balkan Peninsula KW - Economic conditions. KW - Social conditions. KW - Politics and government. KW - Balkan States KW - Balkans KW - Europe, Southeastern KW - Southeastern Europe KW - E-books KW - BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic Conditions KW - BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economic History KW - BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Economics / Comparative KW - POLITICAL SCIENCE / Economic Conditions UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:30743895 AB - In contrast to research on elites or “history from below,” this study offers an approach that can be called “mesohistory” – a collective social biography of the Balkan merchants. In foregrounding the voices of traders, this study sheds fresh light on multiethnic networks of social actors navigating multiple social, political, and economic systems – supporting and opposing various aspects of nationalist ideologies. Personal accounts humanize features of these “faceless” socially mediating groups. Merchants’ generation-specific perspectives on the economy, society, and state, both in times of war and peace, are analyzed against the backdrop of Balkan, Ottoman, and European history. The study captures a dialogue between primary and secondary sources and the major debates regarding nationalism, modernity, and the Ottoman legacy. ER -