Customer Reviews

A Concise History of Bulgaria (Cambridge Concise Histories)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book presents the history of this country in a surprisingly thorough manner for a shorter history book. The struggles and strife of a people and a country are excellently portrayed with clarity and a hint at the emotions they must have felt. The struggle to protect the borders of the land from powerful enemies coming from all directions provides an interesting theme which kept me reading. I was also emotionally touched by the bravery of these people in defying Hitler and refusing to send Jews to their deaths during WWII.

I was inspired to begin learning in more detail about periods and events in Bulgarian History.

Bulgaria is a little-known but fascinating country that has labored for years in obscurity. It has always been behind some Curtain--the Iron Curtain for four decades, the Ottoman Curtain for five centuries, and Byzantium before that. Until now, there have been only a handful of scholarly books on the country, and these have been on narrow periods or topics. There hasn't been a book that would allow an educated reader to get a grasp of the country as a whole. Now there is. This book, by a noted Oxford scholar, is clear, concise, and yet reasonably short. Recommended.

I found this book to be a good coverage of the subject matter, starting mainly about 600 AD and moving forward. I found the subject matter to be very interesting, partly because I knew so little about Bulgaria. Reading this book enhances my understanding of Greek, Serbian, and Turkish history (such as it is). This is an area left out of my earlier education, and this book does of good job of efficiently relating the broad sweep of Bulgarian history. At times I felt the book might have benefited from a more in depth discussion of the contemporary economic, intellectual, or cultural context bearing on certain events or trends. On the other hand, the author does not get bogged down in interesting trivia. The author does a good job of relating the main events in Bulgaria of the past 1400 years, and I enjoyed reading it.

This is an excellent book that serves its stated purpose. Most shortcomings are related to the impossibility of summing up 1400 years of history in less than 300 pages. My main qualms are (1) that the emergence of the "Macedonian Question" is not elaborated clearly enough; and (2) that for a book that continuously (and rightly) underscores the theme of territorial frustration in Bulgarian history, the maps are absolutely useless. To fill in this deficiency, I would direct the reader to the excellent _Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe_ by Dennis Hupchick and Harold Cox. They also produced a similar atlas of the Balkans. Either would work to clarify the myriad territorial complexities of Eastern European and Balkan history.

This is a thorough basic history of Bulgaria. It covers every major topic and most important events but does not spend too much time on any one event. It also does not bog you down with frivolous details. The book is very readable and moves along in a fluid chronological order. The only real shortcoming is the lack of information on the Ottoman Rule, which is so important to Bulgarian history. I was also hoping for some more details on the early Khans.

In the preface, Crampton warns of his insistence that his own students follow a policy of "brevity". Crampton can never be accused of hypocrosy, as this book takes brevity to an extreme. Concepts are intimated, but go undeveloped. Themes are introduced, repeatedly referred to, but never fully explained. Another reviewer stated the book fails to sufficiently elaborate on the Macedonian question, and I couldn't agree more.

My background is in Slavic languages (Russian, Polish, etc). As a speaker of Bulgarian, I was very excited to read this book and to learn more about the country. I ended up being very disappointed because the author's text is too concise. It ends up being vague. The book leaves unanswered as many questions as it answers.

Of all the history books I have read, this is the easily the least satisfying.

It is not easy to write a concise history of a nation that is over 1300 years old but this account takes that time frame and boils it into an easy to follow account of the Bulgarians. One of the most important, yet unheralded, countries in Europe is dealt with in a manner that would make the Bulgarians proud of its history. Although embroiled in wars, external occupations and internal strife for much of its history; a rich and diverse cultural heritage has remained intact throughout Bulgaria. This history of Bulgaria should be read by any student of European history as it tends to unlock the rich vault of Eastern European history and its influence throughout the world.

You have to really want to learn about early Bulgarian history to enjoy this book. It's very data oriented & can be a little boring, as it is written in a typical academic style (and I AM an academic, so I know whereof I speak). However, I am traveling to Bulgaria this summer & after reviewing two of the more popular books on the Balkans, I opted to start with this one because other reviewers were less likely to accuse the author of have an "agenda." (e.g., read the reviews of Balkan Ghosts). I will probably end up ordering & reading Balkan Ghosts while I am on my trip, but I wanted some other background before I did that.

Yes, I have been to Bulgaria and I actually know some Bulgarians in the Chicago area. This book serves the purpose of those trying to find out a little about this ancient country in the Balkan peninsula. Bulgaria has friendly people, lots of history, and possibly a good future. This book tries to summarize the past thousand years of history with an overview. As one of the previous reviewers have already noted, the Ottoman decades have not been covered in great detail, so readers may need to look elsewhere for this information. Altogether, this is an informative read for those trying to learn about this country and its people.

This references a 1996 edition, and I think great changes have happened recently with this country. An updated edition would be nice.

This book provides a nice review of Bulgarian history, though at times it gets bogged down in a sea of place and people names, losing, for me the reader, the main thesis. I would like to have seen more time spent on ancient history, which was skimmed over quickly. And sadly, this book was written about ten years ago, just when change was rapidly occurring in Bulgaria. On the other hand, the information presented is generally quite accessible and presented in a balanced fashion focusing on important topics.

Steven Mlodinow