When Ethnicity Did Not Matter in the Balkans: A Study of Identity in Pre-Nationalist Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia in the Medieval and Early-Modern Periods by Fine Jr., John V. A. (2006) Hardcover

by John V.A. Fine

"When Ethnicity Did Not Matter in the Balkans is a study of the people who lived in what is now Croatia during the Middle Ages (roughly 600-1500) and the early-modern period (1500-1800), and how they identified themselves and were identified by others. In When Ethnicity Did Not Matter in the Balkans, Fine investigates the identity labels (and their meaning) employed by and about the medieval and early-modern population of the lands that make up present-day Croatia. Religion, local residence, and narrow family or broader clan all played important parts in past and present identities. Fine, however, concentrates chiefly on broader secular names that reflect attachment to a city, region, tribe or clan, a labeled people, or state." Fine has taken a further step by demonstrating that the medieval and early-modern eras in this region were in many ways pre-ethnic. He also challenges patriotic and nationalist historians' tendencies to project twentieth-century forms of identity onto the pre-modern past, and he shows that this practice has parallels elsewhere. The result is a magisterial analysis showing us the complexity of pre-national identity in Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia.

Genres: History

Hardcover

First published January 1, 2006