Balkan Historiographical Wars: The Middle Ages, eds. Diana Mishkova, Roumen Daskalov

Balkan Historiographical Wars: The Middle Ages, eds. Diana Mishkova, Roumen Daskalov  (Palgrave Macmillan, August 2025)

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-90113-3

The studies in this volume present some of the major “historiographical wars” over the medieval Balkan past fought by the historians of competing nation states in the region. Еthnic origins and “national” makeup of medieval states and disputed regions; ownership of the historical heritage located in or associated with that territory; provenance or “national” consciousness of important historical personalities; the boundaries of a certain medieval state and its political, religious, and cultural influence on others – these are some of the issues around which major clashes between the modern Balkan historiographies recurred. The book is valuable to all those interested in how the medieval past becomes instrumentalized by the “national historians” in the service of constructing the national canons of history.

CONTENTS:

Legacy, Tradition, Heritage and the History Writing in the Balkans -- Diana Mishkova

Controversies Over Samuеl’s State -- Roumen Daskalov

Skanderbeg: Figures of Paper, Figures of Stone -- Nathalie Clayer

Art Wars: The Creation of Bulgarian Art History and the Balkan Controversies Over the Medieval Heritage of Macedonia -- Tchavdar Marinov

Defending Our Lands in Ancient and Medieval Studies: The Albanian Case -- Alexander Vezenkov

In Search of an Acceptable Past: The Bosnian Middle Ages and National Ideologies -- Nedim Rabić