Bulgaria has a deep and every changing history and much is written about it, naturally most in the native language of Bulgarian. The country has had a dark past, which is generally unknown to many outside Bulgaria and this book will easily dispel many mysteries in a very short time. This book is designed to give a brief account of the history of Bulgaria in simple terms outlaying all the important dates and people who have invaded, controlled and influenced Bulgaria from the start of the original Thracians to Bulgaria now with a new invader - The European Union.

Bulgaria became a member of the European Union in 2007, yet its history is amongst the least well known in the rest of the continent. R. J. Crampton provides here a general introduction to this country at the cross-roads of Christendom and Islam. The text and illustrations trace the rich and dramatic story from pre-history, through the days when Bulgaria was the centre of a powerful medieval empire and the five centuries of Ottoman rule, to the cultural renaissance of the nineteenth century and the political upheavals of the twentieth, upheavals which led Bulgaria into three wars. This updated edition includes the years from 1995 to 2004, a vital period in which Bulgaria endured financial meltdown, set itself seriously on the road to reform, elected its former King as prime minister, and finally secured membership of NATO and admission to the European Union.

This comprehensive overview of the history of Bulgaria covers events in this important Balkan nation from its 9th-century origins in the first Bulgarian Empire through the present day. Now an Eastern European leader in the fields of science and technology, a nation with impressive renewable energy production capabilities and an extensive communication infrastructure, as well as a top exporter of minerals and metals, Bulgaria has grown both economically and politically over the past two decades. The History of Bulgaria examines the country's development, describing its cultural, political, and social history and development over 13 centuries. The modern era is particularly emphasized, including Bulgaria's role in World War II, the long tenure of Communist leader Todor Zhivkov, the role of Aleksandur Stamboliiski and the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union, and the myriad changes in Bulgaria's post-Communist period. The author also highlights significant individuals in Bulgarian history, such as Dimitur Peshev, the Deputy Speaker whose actions saved 50,000 Jews from the Holocaust.

In this vivid musical ethnography, Timothy Rice documents and interprets the history of folk music, song, and dance in Bulgaria over a seventy-year period of dramatic change. From 1920 to 1989, Bulgaria changed from a nearly medieval village society to a Stalinist planned industrial economy to a chaotic mix of capitalist and socialist markets and cultures. In the context of this history, Rice brings Bulgarian folk music to life by focusing on the biography of the Varimezov family, including the musician Kostadin and his wife Todora, a singer. Combining interviews with his own experiences of learning how to play, sing and dance Bulgarian folk music, Rice presents one of the most detailed accounts of traditional, aural learning processes in the ethnomusicological literature. Using a combination of traditionally dichotomous musicological and ethnographic approaches, Rice tells the story of how individual musicians learned their tradition, how they lived it during the pre-Communist era of family farming, how the tradition changed with industrialization brought under Communism, and finally, how it flourished and evolved in the recent, unstable political climate. This work—complete with a compact disc and numerous illustrations and musical examples—contributes not only to ethnomusicological theory and method, but also to our understanding of Slavic folklore, Eastern European anthropology, and cultural processes in Socialist states.

Post-Stalinism – the last three decades of socialism in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe – gave birth to new political ideas and social struggles, which reshaped socialist societies and forged new global imaginaries. With a focus on socialist Bulgaria, Restless History traces the dynamic polemical and social shifts that took place during this period. With anti-Stalinist and humanist visions, socialist societies rebuilt their material and social worlds around social-reproductive needs such as care, housing, education, leisure, rest, and access to culture and the arts. In the sphere of global politics, they created anti-racist, feminist, anti-colonial, and anti-imperialist solidarities that challenged Western hegemony and reordered the global geographies of power. Yet the changes of the period also took some troubling directions: humanist imaginaries of socialist progress, modernity, and nationhood welcomed ideas of national and social homogeneity, opening the doors to ethnonationalism. Following the promising as well as troubling moments in the history of Bulgarian post-Stalinism, Zhivka Valiavicharska brings to life the complexities of real lived socialism. Restless History re-examines the post-Stalinist period in Bulgaria, Eastern Europe, and beyond – in all its tensions and contradictions – to offer the socialist past as an unfinished history, one that cannot be easily put to rest.

Post-socialist development in Bulgaria has led to fundamental changes in social life and political relations and threatened village identity. This study underlinessome of the fundamental processes at work across eastern Europe that explain the widespread ambiguity in regard to post-socialist reform.

This survey of Bulgaria traces its history form the liberation from the Ottoman Empire to 1985.