Description
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewScarboro’s ground-breaking study explores the textured experience of life under communism in postwar Bulgaria. With erudition, pointed anaylsis, and a marked thematic originality, this work reveals the complexity of a system in which state and society were intricately intertwined. Far from exposing human complicity or duplicity, Scarboro’s analysis posits the interdependence of ruler and ruled in a way that questions traditional notions of totalitarianism under communism. -- Mary Neuburger, University of Texas at Austin
The best regional studies shed light on broader trends, and Cristofer Scarboro's work illuminates national and even transnational issues. He brings a much needed challenge to the historiography of socialist humanism in this regional study of Haskovo, Bulgaria and shows the complex and fluid nature of socialism and the construction of subjectivity. The regime's attempts to create a monolithic structure collided with the multiple ways of understanding, living, and using the culture being foisted upon citizens. What remains is a perfect example of the law of unintended consequences. This is a model study for this period in eastern Europe. -- Karl Qualls, Dickinson College
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Chapter 1. Introduction: Creating Socialist Humanism Chapter 2. "Stroim za rodinata" Chapter 3. Haskovo and Tashkent: Brothers in Socialism Chapter 4. Touring, the Sacred and the Socialist Self Chapter 5. Plotting the Self in the Socialist Humanist Art Gallery Chapter 6. Conclusions: Socialist Humanism: Promises and Perils Bibliography Index
