Polish Liberal Thought Before 1918

The nineteenth century was the epoch of nation building for the Bulgarians under Ottoman rule. In this book, comparisons and analogies are made between the Bulgarian Revival and other regions, epochs, ideological trends, and events. These latter are taken from two major areasWestern Europe (Renaissance, Enlightenment, Romanticism, the French Revolution, and national liberation movements), and Russia (the agrarian question, populism and utopian socialism, revolutionary democrats, and...
More Description

The nineteenth century was the epoch of nation building for the Bulgarians under Ottoman rule. In this book, comparisons and analogies are made between the Bulgarian Revival and other regions, epochs, ideological trends, and events. These latter are taken from two major areasWestern Europe (Renaissance, Enlightenment, Romanticism, the French Revolution, and national liberation movements), and Russia (the agrarian question, populism and utopian socialism, revolutionary democrats, and the Russian Revolution of 1905). Historical facts about the Revival were instrumentalized for political purposes, such as the fostering of national and state loyalties through the reproduction of identities, or, directly, as the legitimating/contesting of a current political regime under the guise of disputes over historical legacy. Ideological mobilization took place in the form of nationalism, right-wing authoritarianism (shading into fascism), and communism. The author sets in relief some of the mechanisms and logic of the two grand narratives under the sign of nationalism, and of Marxism.