The Orient within: Muslim Minorities and the Negotiation of Nationhood in Modern Bulgaria

Nationalism has been the bane of the Balkans for the past two centuries. Each country has dealt with the phenomenon according to its own definitions and has interacted with its minorities accordingly, ranging from absorption to ethnic cleansing. . . . This scholarly yet quite readable book . . . examines the various pressures on the Muslim populations that ranged from forced assimilation to forced emigration. . . . While focusing on the Muslim minorities, Neuburger provides a sound history of modern Bulgaria and its bout with modernity. -Choice, November 2004

Neuburger carefully explores how Muslim minorities sometimes resisted, sometimes diverted, and sometimes accommodated the modernizing schemes of those in power. -Foreign Affairs, May/June 2004

Mary Neuburger describes how the veil, fez, and other trappings of Arabo-Turkic culture in Bulgaria became important instruments to define an emerging Bulgarian national identity. . . . Neuburger's scope is the whole of modern Bulgarian history, and she shows how the process of making Bulgarians out of Pomaks was not a straightforward process. -Kate Brown, Times Literary Supplement, 8 April 2005

It is a rare pleasure to read a book on a subject so multifaceted and to find the product refreshingly erudite, concise, and a well-written example of meticulous scholarship. Mary Neuburger's text will be a standard for years to come. Her research is thorough and incisive; she has examined recent scholarship and analyzed it for the benefit of her readers. She has also filled her narrative with abundant supportive examples that will leave even the most skeptical reader satisfied she has made her point well. . . . This is outstanding work. . . . Neuburger does a commendable job of dealing with the entire question of Bulgarian identity. . . . I can think of no criticism of this work. -Joseph F. Patrouch, American Historical Review, December 2004

The Orient Within is a well researched and clearly written book. Its arguments and insights are cogent and illuminating, extremely sophisticated and intelligent. The topics addressed are extensively covered and very well argued: the Pomak question, communist policies toward the Muslims in the period immediately after the second world war, and the dress code legislation of the 1980s; themes concerning head-dress, the veil, and circumcision; and minority rights, the problems of interethnic communal relations, and the tensions created by modernization. Mary Neuburger's research and scholarship are impressive, and she has made considerable use of archives to which few western scholars have yet had access. -Richard Crampton, Professor of East European History, University of Oxford