Balkan Smoke

C. Neuburger Mary

Description

This fascinating book explores the history of tobacco and tobacco culture in Bulgaria from the mid-19th century, when the country became partially and then fully independent from the Ottoman Empire, to the postcommunist present. Neuburger... argues convincingly that smoking and the production of tobacco products played an importantif not the keypart in Bulgaria's political, economic; and cultural modernization during this period.... Summing Up: Highly recommended. ChoiceIn Balkan Smoke, Mary C. Neuburger leads readers along the Bulgarian-Ottoman caravan routes and into the coffeehouses of Istanbul and Sofia. She reveals how a remote country was drawn into global economic networks through tobacco production and consumption and in the process became modern. In writing the life of tobacco in Bulgaria from the late Ottoman period through the years of Communist rule, Neuburger gives us much more than the cultural history of a commodity; she provides a fresh perspective on the genesis of modern Bulgaria itself. The tobacco trade comes to shape most of Bulgaria's international relations; it drew Bulgaria into its fateful alliance with Nazi Germany and in the postwar period Bulgaria was the primary supplier of smokes (the famed Bulgarian Gold) for the USSR and its satellites. By the late 1960s Bulgaria was the number one exporter of tobacco in the world, with roughly one eighth of its population involved in production.Through the pages of this book we visit the places where tobacco is grown and meet the merchants, the workers, and the peasant growers, most of whom are Muslim by the postwar period. Along the way, we learn how smoking and anti-smoking impulses influenced perceptions of luxury and necessity, questions of novelty, imitation, value, taste, and gender-based respectability. While the scope is often global, Neuburger also explores the politics of tobacco within Bulgaria. Among the book's surprises are the ways in which conflicts over the tobacco industry (and smoking) help to clarify the forbidding quagmire of Bulgarian politics.

Sujets

• Antiques
• Histoire
• Antique
• Economic history
• Eastern Europe
• History of Europe
• Agriculture

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 04 octobre 2012
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780801465949
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

BALKAN SMOKE

BALKAN SMOKE

TOBACCO AND T HE MAKI NG OF MODE RN BULGARI A

M a r y C . N e u b u r g e r

CORNELL UNIVERSITY PRESS Ithaca and London

Copyright © 2013 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the pub- lisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850.

First published 2013 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Neuburger, Mary, 1966– Balkan smoke : tobacco and the making of modern Bulgaria / Mary Neuburger.  p. cm.  Includes bibliographical references and index.  ISBN 978-0-8014-5084-6 (cloth : alk. paper)  1. Tobacco industry—Bulgaria—History—19th century. 2. Tobacco industry—Bulgaria—History—20th century. 3. Smoking—Social aspects—Bulgaria—History—19th century. 4. Smoking—Social aspects—Bulgaria— History—20th century. I. Title.  HD9145.B9N48 2013  338.4'76797309499—dc23 2012018011

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Cloth printing

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Dedicated to my loving parents, Sandy and Jerry, whose unrelenting belief in me made me who I am

Co nt e nts

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1 1. Coffeehouse Babble: Smoking and Sociability in the Long Nineteenth Century 11 2. No Smoke without Fire: Tobacco and Transformation, 1878–1914 43 3. From the Orient Express to the Sofia Café: Smoke and Propriety in the Interwar Years 78 4. The Tobacco Fortress: Asenovgrad Krepost and the Politics of Tobacco between the World Wars 108 5. From Leaf to Ash: Jews, Germans, and Bulgarian Gold in the Second World War 134 6. Smoke-Filled Rooms: Places to Light Up in Communist Bulgaria 167 7. Smokes for Big Brother: Bulgartabak and Tobacco under Communism 199 Conclusion 229

Notes 235 Bibliography 281 Index 299

A c k n o w l e d g m e nt s

I would like to thank a number of people and institutions that extended the support and resources that made the writing of this book possible. First and foremost, the University of Texas granted me the supported leave-time to pursue this research and fill these many pages with my findings. My colleagues in the University of Texas history depart- ment offered encouragement, helpful commentary, and pointed critique. In particular I thank Anne Martinez, Madeline Hsu, Ginny Burnett, Nancy Stalker, Joan Neuberger, David Crew, Bob Abzug, Tatiana Lichtenstein, Karl Miller, Ruramisai Charumbira, Mark Metzler, James Vaughn, and anyone else who listened to my ramblings on tobacco. I also thank the chair of the history department, Alan Tully. Among the more recent sounding boards, Doug Biow was a particularly valuable colleague and friend who helped me weather the transition to being an administrator while the book was still in process. I also warmly thank my graduate students—Emily Hillhouse, Zach- ary Doleshal, Karl Brown, and Mehmet Celik—who listened, commented, and in the cases of Emily and Zach, helped to edit the rough manuscript. I thank the Center for Russian, East European and Eurasian Studies that not only granted me research support and an interdisciplinary home, but also adopted me—or perhaps I adopted it—as fearless leader in 2010. In addition to the University of Texas, I also received financial support for this project at various stages from the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the International Research and Exchanges Board. Without their support the research and writing of this work would simply not have been possible. I am also grateful to a number of friends and colleagues outside of the University of Texas who listened to my ranting or who read and commented on my work over the years. I am sure I am forgetting many of you but to name a few I thank Paulina Bren, Kate Brown, Artan Hoxha, Ali Igmen, James Felak, Hillel Kieval, Kristen Ghodsee, Patrick Patterson, Maria Bucur, Melissa Bokovoy, Keith Brown, Irina Gigova, and Theodora Dragostinova. A special thanks to my friends and colleagues in Bulgaria, especially Mariana

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