History in Exile:
Memory and Identity at the Borders of the Balkans
Pamela Ballinger

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ADDITIONAL REVIEWS:

History in Exile is a formidable piece of scholarship that will enrich the ethnography of Europe and the literature on memory."--Leyla Neyzi, Anthropological Quarterly

"Pamela Ballinger has earned her status as an analyst of the Istrian Peninsula by the breadth and detail of her fieldwork and by her ability to excavate the historical complexity of the region and then situate it outside the parochial framework that has in general hindered local and international commentary on that area. . . . [S]he has been able to open up this part of the so-called Balkans to Europe (and vice versa) empirically and theoretically."--Glenda Sluga, Journal of Modern History

ENDORSEMENTS:

"This is a wonderful book, beautifully written and painstakingly researched. Pamela Ballinger has crafted a work that will stand on its own for years to come. Her prose is lively, at times lyrical, and conveys the rich complexity of identity, memory, and loss in contemporary contexts marked by the traumatic legacy of violence. The interplay between literary sources, social science literature, popular cultural registers, and personal accounts, is delightful while sharp and analytically clear."--Donald Carter, Johns Hopkins University

"This is a richly rendered narrative ethnography that brilliantly interleaves the fraught stories of people living across the shifting borders of Italy, Croatia, and Slovenia. Its most significant contribution lies in how it creates a distinctive space for ethnographic inquiry whereby the monumental historical and cultural transformations that have unfolded across the Julian March are manifest as intimate human struggles. Ballinger achieves this with intellectual rigor, candor, and humanity."--Douglas R. Holmes, University of Otago, New Zealand

"History in Exile is a significant contribution to our understanding of a little-known chapter in the development of Balkan identities in relation to Western Europe. Ballinger's meticulous research and her ability to maintain a balanced distance from all the parties concerned will make this work a major addition to the literature. The writing is fluent and engaging, is unincumbered by unnecessary jargon, and conveys complex situations with lucidity and empathy."--Michael Herzfeld, Harvard University

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File created: 4/24/2008

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