Maria Todorova, The Lost World of Socialists at Europe’s Margins: Imagining Utopia, 1870s - 1920s. London: Bloomsbury Academic 2020. ISBN:9781350150331

ABOUT THE LOST WORLD OF SOCIALISTS AT EUROPE’S MARGINS

Maria Todorova's book is devoted to the 'golden age' of the socialist idea, broadly surveying the period in and around the time of the Second International. It critically examines the promise for an alternative socialist utopia from 1870 to the 1920s. Todorova brings in the experience of the periphery in a comparative context in the belief that the margins can often elucidate better the character of a phenomenon, and de-provincialize it from essentialist notions. In doing so, The Lost World of Socialists at Europe's Margins moves beyond the traditional historiographical emphasis on ideology by looking at different intersections or entanglements of spaces, generations, genders, ideas and feelings, and different flows of historical time. The study provides a social and cultural history of early socialism in Eastern Europe with an emphasis on Bulgaria, arguably the country with the earliest and strongest socialist movement in Southeast Europe, and one that had a unique relationship to both German and Russian social democracy. Based on a rich prosopographical database of around 3500 biographies of people born in the 19th century, the book addresses the interplay of several generations of leftists, looking at the specifics of how ideas were generated, received, transferred and transformed. Finally, the work investigates the intersection between subjectivity and memory as reflected in a unique cache of archival materials containing over 4000 documentary sources including diaries, oral interviews, and unpublished memoirs. A microhistorical approach to this material allows the reconstruction of 'structures of feeling' that inspired an exceptional group of individuals.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface Part I – Centers and Peripheries 1. Accommodating Bulgarian Social Democracy within the Socialist International 2. Provincial Cosmopolitans and Metropolitan Nationalists Part II - Generations 3. The Prosopography of the Bulgarian Left 4. Tales of Formation 5. Socialist Women or Socialist Wives Part III – Structures of Feeling 6. Dignity and Will: The Odyssey of Angelina Boneva 7. Love and Internationalism: The Diary of Todor Tsekov 8. Romanticism and Modernity: Koika Tineva and Nikola Sakarov Coda Bibliography Index

REVIEWS

“This brilliant study by Maria Todorova makes crucial contributions both to the history of European socialism and the history of southeastern Europe, while also offering a pioneering investigation of the history of the sentiments and emotions in relation to political thought.” –  Larry Wolff, Julius Silver Professor of History, New York University, USA“The Bulgarian socialist movement was one of the main intellectual transmitter belts for political, social and economic ideas between Russia, Western Europe and Germany--the stronghold of international socialism before World War I--on the one hand and post-Ottoman Bulgaria on the other. Maria Todorova brilliantly reconstructs a "lost world": The pan-European network of socialist theoreticians and activists like Blagoev and Kautsky, Kirkov and Trotsky, and many others. A must read for every Europeanist!” –  Stefan Troebst, Professor of East European Cultural History, Leipzig University, Germany“A triumphant vindication of the historian's view from the periphery. Using Bulgaria as the fulcrum for her analysis, Todorova challenges taken-for-granted approaches to early European socialism, while at the same time re-animating the ideas, experiences and emotions of men and women who shared the potent dream of 'a utopia of the future'.” –  Wendy Bracewell, Professor of Southeast European History, University College London, UK