Description
Book SynopsisLakes and Empires in Macedonian History: Contesting the Waters tells the story of Psarades, a lakeside village in Macedonian Greece on the shores of the Prespa lake. This village, which is in many ways a completely typical Greek settlement and yet remains unconventional in its way of life, embodies the many contradictions of modern history and in exploring its roots James Pettifer and Miranda Vickers skilfully uncover the wider social, cultural and political history of this lake region.Drawing from oral testimonies and attentive to the construction of national histories, this book considers how the development of international borders, movement of people and role of national identities within imperial borderlands shaped Macedonia today. What is more, by centering the lakes and making use of an innovative environmental historical methodology, Pettifer and Vickers offer the first environmental history of this multi-ethnic borderland region shared by Greece, North Macedonia and Alb
Trade Review[An] ambitious project… interesting not only in terms of informativeness but also in methodology… the concentrated result of the long-term work of two first-class Balkan history specialists. * Slavic World Journal (Bloomsbury Translation) *
This is historical writing at its best. Rich in detail -- from Macedonian lions and gladiators in ancient times to women gathering cow dung for fertilizer in the late 20th century -- this volume uses the Prespa lake region, wedged between Albanian, Greece, and North Macedonia, as a prism through which to understand the politics affecting the Balkans as a whole. Reflecting nearly three decades of research, this is an amazing book written by two veteran Balkanists at the height of their powers. * Sabrina P. Ramet, Professor Emerita, The Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway *
Table of ContentsList of Maps Preface 1. The Prespa Lakes: Ecology and Human Settlement 2. Prespa Lake Communities from Prehistory to the Ottoman Conquest 3. The Lake Communities in the Ottoman Empire, 1380-1863 4. Prespa and the Struggle for Ottoman Macedonia, 1863-1914 5. 1914 to 1923: New Nations and New Borders Divide the Lakes 6. Nivica becomes Psarades: The Construction of Greek Macedonia, 1924-1939 7. Prespa under the Axis Occupation, 1939-194 8. Freedom and Civil Conflcit, 1945-1949: The Centrality of Prespa 9. Exile and Return: The Cold War Years, 1950-1990 10. The Prespa Lakes: Peace and Environmental Crisis, 1991-2018 Appendix I. Place Name Usage in Late Ottoman and 20th Century Prespa Appendix II. Religious and Ethnic Identities in Prespa Villages in FYROM/RM Appendix III. Some Non-Greek Terms Relating to Prespa Village Toponyms Bibliography Index
