Sign-In
Cart
Cities of Dust and Mud: Urbanism and Bourgeois Fantasy in the Balkans, 1820-1920
Paperback
Series: Stanford Studies on Central and Eastern Europe
Eastern European HistoryGeneral SociologyGeneral World History
ISBN13: 9781503646803
Publisher: Stanford University Press
Published: Jun 9 2026
Pages: 286
Weight: 0.95
Height: 0.80 Width: 6.00 Depth: 8.90
Language: English
This book explores the social costs of urban change and the limits of modernity through a comparative study of two Balkan cities, Belgrade and Sofia. Between 1820 and 1920, both cities grew from small Ottoman towns into large national capitals, as their bourgeois elites envisioned new, urban societies on the European borderlands. This book traces the lofty ambitions and dire consequences of this project: situated on the periphery of global capital flows, elite-led attempts at remaking Balkan capitals into European cities relied on dispossession, brutal labor control, and real estate speculation, while failing to achieve their goals of exponential growth.
Drawing on a rich array of archival sources, Milos Jovanovic considers the ethnic cleansing of Muslims in Belgrade, municipal corruption in Sofia, anxieties over sex work and the regulation of intimacy, and attempts at creating docile workers through policing and prisons. Bringing working people to the forefront, he shows how the modernity envisioned by elites failed to transform their lives for the better, and how urban residents developed a nostalgia for the Ottoman city as a critique of their contemporary moment. Going beyond the limits of national frameworks, this book transforms our understanding of Balkan history, national modernization, and the role of fantasy in capitalist societies, offering keen insights for today's era of growing inequality.
1 different editions
Also available
Cities of Dust and Mud: Urbanism and Bourgeois Fantasy in the Balkans, 1820-1920
Jovanovic, Milos
Hardcover
Also from
Jovanovic, Milos
Cities of Dust and Mud: Urbanism and Bourgeois Fantasy in the Balkans, 1820-1920
Jovanovic, Milos
Hardcover
Also in
Eastern European History
Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland
Browning, Christopher R.
Paperback
The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II
Freeman, Gregory A.
Paperback
The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 2]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I.
Paperback
Tidal Wave: The Pilots, the Princess, and the Enemy Ace - A True Story of Courage and Survival in WWII
Makos, Adam
Hardcover
In Search of Dracula: The History of Dracula and Vampires
Florescu, Radu
McNally, Raymond T.
Paperback
The Steppe and Its Empires: The Russian Empire and Its Eurasian Counterparts
Khodarkovsky, Michael
Hardcover
The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All for the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II
Freeman, Gregory A.
Hardcover
The Magic Lantern: The Revolution of '89 Witnessed in Warsaw, Budapest, Berlin, and Prague
Ash, Timothy Garton
Paperback
The Last Tsar: The Abdication of Nicholas II and the Fall of the Romanovs
Hasegawa, Tsuyoshi
Hardcover
Red Horizons: The True Story of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescus' Crimes, Lifestyle, and Corruption
Pacepa, Ion Mihai
Paperback
Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present
Beckwith, Christopher I.
Paperback
Violence and Occupation: The Red Army in the Balkans and Central Europe, 1944-1945
Majstorovic, Vojin
Hardcover
Walking Since Daybreak: A Story of Eastern Europe, World War II, and the Heart of Our Century
Eksteins, Modris
Paperback
The Rise of Catholicism in Southeastern Poland! -Told Through the History of its 800-year-old parish - A Fred Topor Polish Heritage Series Book: St. S
Grzebień, S. J. Ludwig
Paperback
Endgame: The Betrayal and Fall of Srebrenica, Europe's Worst Massacre Since World War II
Rohde, David
Paperback
Life Must Go on: The Remarkable Story of Sol Lurie, the Kovno Ghetto, and the Tragic Fate of Lithuania's Jews
Lurie, Bea
Jacobs, Steven Leonard
Hardcover
An Uncertain Spring: Reform, Protest, and Suppression in Croatia, 1968-1971
Dragojevic, Mila
Paperback
Scanderbeg: A History of George Castriota and the Albanian Resistance to Islamic Expansion in Fifteenth Century Europe
Brackob, A. K.
Paperback
German History: A Captivating Guide to the History of Germany and Germania
History, Captivating
Hardcover
A Frozen State: Experiencing Cold in Russian History and Culture
Starks, Tricia
Romaniello, Matthew P.
Smith, Alison K.
Hardcover
Norse Mythology: Tales of Nordic Gods, Heroes, Yggdrasil, Norse Magic & Viking Lore
Kerr, Darby
Paperback
The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569-1999
Snyder, Timothy
Paperback
The Defeat of the Damned: The Destruction of the Dirlewanger Brigade at the Battle of Ipolysag, December 1944
Nash, Douglas E., Sr.
Hardcover
The Yugoslav Air Force Volume 3: In the Battles for Slovenia, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1991-1992
Radic, Aleksandar
Paperback
Fear: Anti-Semitism in Poland After Auschwitz: An Essay in Historical Interpretation
Gross, Jan
Paperback
Inventing Eastern Europe: The Map of Civilization on the Mind of the Enlightenment
Wolff, Larry
Paperback
Sickle and Veil: Communist Gender and Policies Towards Muslim Minorities in Eastern Europe
Simic, Ivan
Hardcover
More than a Grain of Truth: The official true story behind the film Mr. Jones, starring James Norton
Colley, Nigel Linsan
Colley, Margaret Siriol
Field, Naomi
Paperback
Keys of This Blood: Pope John Paul II Versus Russia and the West for Control of the New World Order
Martin, Malachi
Paperback
Eastern Europe!, 2nd Edition: Everything You Need to Know about the History (and More) of a Region That Shaped Our World and Still Does
Jankowski, Tomek
Paperback
From Stalinism to Pluralism: A Documentary History of Eastern Europe Since 1945
Stokes, Gale
Paperback
Barbarossa Derailed the Battle for Smolensk 10 July-10 September 1941 Volume 4: Atlas
Glantz, David M.
Hardcover
The Last Peasant War: Violence and Revolution in Twentieth-Century Eastern Europe
Benes, Jakub S.
Hardcover
The Holocaust by Bullets: A Priest's Journey to Uncover the Truth Behind the Murder of 1.5 Million Jews
Desbois, Patrick
Paperback
Romanian History: A Captivating Guide to the History of Romania and Vlad the Impaler
History, Captivating
Paperback
Realigning Humanitarianism in the Balkans: From Cold War Politics to Neoliberal Ethics
Brkovic, Čarna
Paperback
A Village in Revolutionary Ukraine: How Bolshevik Rule Changed a People: The Diary of a Common Man, 1918-1928
Velychenko, Stephen
Paperback
The Galician Division 1943-45: Ukrainian Volunteers and Conscripts in the Waffen SS
McCormack, David
Hardcover
Engineering Global Socialism: Ownership, Non-Alignment, and Corporate Culture in a Bosnian Company
Calori, Anna
Paperback
Blood, Dust and Snow: Diaries of a Panzer Commander in Germany and on the Eastern Front, 1938-1943
Schäfer, Robin
Hardcover
The Triumph of Broken Promises: The End of the Cold War and the Rise of Neoliberalism
Bartel, Fritz
Hardcover
Europe's Long Century, Volume 2: Society, Politics, and Culture, 1945-Present
Di Scala, Spencer M.
Paperback
The Last Palace: Europe's Turbulent Century in Five Lives and One Legendary House
Eisen, Norman
Paperback
Cold War Brokers: Hungarian-American Cultural Exchanges and Transnational Mobility, 1956-1989
László, Szabolcs
Hardcover
The Curse of Empire: Ukraine, Poland, and the Fatal Paths in Russian History
Schulze Wessel, Martin
Hardcover
Tell It to the World: International Justice and the Secret Campaign to Hide Mass Murder in Kosovo
Behar, Eliott
Paperback
Progressive Women's Movements in Austria and Hungary: Conflict, Cooperation, Circulation
Fedeles-Czeferner, Dóra
Paperback