Between Two Motherlands

Uncovering the shifting allegiances of this Greek minority in Bulgaria before World War II.

Theodora Dragostinova is Assistant Professor of History at The Ohio State University.

We are fortunate... to have more solid information regarding the Greeks in Bulgaria and their mitigation to Greece in Theodora Dragostinova's Between Two Motherlands: Nationality and Emigration among the Greeks of Bulgaria. Dragostinova’s itinerary through three countries, Bulgaria, Greece, and the United States, as well as her proficiency in three languages, Bulgarian, Greek, and English, make her the ideal researcher on this subject.... Dragostinova’s book is a well documented and objective analysis of a subject typical of the ethno-political reality of southeastern Europe during the twentieth century, an area that lost its unity as [an] integral part of the Ottoman Empire under the pressure of the local nationalisms.

Anastasia Karakadidou:

Theodora Dragostinova's masterful study of the Greeks of Bulgaria begins with her honest admission that the book is the product of her own life between two motherlands.. It is precisely the absence of any national prejudices that makes this book remarkable.

Max Bergholz:

In this deeply researched and thought-provoking book, Theodora Dragostinova uses the case of the Greeks of Bulgaria during the first half of the twentieth century to shed new light on the agency of orgdinary people in shaping notions of national identity while negotioating their way under the pressure of elite-led nationalization projects. Based largely on documents mined in fifteen central and provincial archives in Greece and Bulgaria, this book represents a significant contribution to the field of nationalism studies by vividly highlighting the fluidness and ambiguity of nationness.. Dragostinova has given us a first-rate analysis of the fluid nature of individual national identification though periods of histrical upheaval.

Mary Neuburger, University of Texas at Austin:

Between Two Motherlands is a well-researched and engagingly written book of broad interest in the fields of East European and Near Eastern history. It has much to add to discussions of identity, migration, and the politics of population exchange. Theodora Dragostinova maps the complex fate of the 'Greeks' of Bulgaria given the ambiguity of Bulgarian-Greek identities and state relations in the Balkans. She explores the shifting and ambiguous parameters of identity in the region, which are forever complicated by local rootedness, social allegiances, and national indifference.