The contributors to this study critically de-construct Albanian myths and offer insights into Albanian history and politics. They conclude with contemporary Albanian critiques of the origins and functions of Albanian politics and ideologies.

This book represents a group of individual musical essays collected under common Albanian themes, with a particular focus on historical identities and traditional musical performance. It shows that, at the beginning of the 18th century, there was a growing interest in representing the Albanian hero Scanderbeg on the operatic stage, as some well-known composers of baroque music began to place a greater emphasis on music’s dramatic power to elicit emotional response. The book also notes that this sense of drama was also incorporated into the vocal forms such as opera.

This book is a comprehensive study of more than 200 years of the shared and interconnected histories of Greek-Albanian relations, a field of inquiry that has not attracted the international scholarly attention it deserves. The book presents and analyses in detail topics including the contested borderland (1800–1912), the Greek Revolution (1821–1830) and Greek- Albanian entanglements during the Greek Revolution, Greek nationalism (identity and narrative), the Albanians (pre-modernism, belated nationalism, origin), the rise of Albanian nationalism, Albanian national identity and historical narrative, Greek-Albanian relations from the League of Prizren (1878) until Albania’s declaration of independence (1912), Greek irredentism (the "Northern Epirus Question", 1912–1920) and Albania’s precarious independence, Greek irredentism and Greek-Albanian relations (the "Northern Epirus Question", 1940–1971), the Greek minority in Albania, the Cham (Muslim Albanian) issue, the turbulent first part of the 1990s, the pending Greek-Albanian issues, and public opinion. It concludes with a road map for an eventual Albanian-Greek reconciliation. This volume will interest scholars and students of Southeastern Europe (Balkans), international relations and history, political science and sociology. It will also be a valuable resource for diplomats, journalists, think tanks and other organizations and institutions involved in the Balkans Greek-Albanian relations.

This book examines the ways in which Albanian men, women, and families who have migrated from Montenegro and Kosovo to the United States understand and make sense of their mobility and settlement. Drawing on empirical research, including interview material, it goes beyond the experiences of individual migrants to explore the role that cultural identity has in shaping their mobility and immobility, with particular attention to the manner in which subjects talk about their experiences in terms of past and present movements and moments. An original storytelling study of the meaning, scope, and outcomes of mobility, and the construction of home and identity on the part of migrants, this title will appeal to scholars of sociology, geography, anthropology, and politics with interests in migration and diaspora.

Observers and historians continue to marvel at the diversity and complexity of the Ottoman Empire. This book explores the significant and multifaceted role that Orthodox Christian networks played in the sultan’s realm from the 17th century until WWI. These multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, and multi-confessional formations contributed fundamentally to the political, economic, social, and cultural development of the Empire as well as to its gradual disintegration. Bringing together scholars from most Balkan countries, Christian Networks in the Ottoman Empire describes the variety of Orthodox Christian networks under Ottoman rule. The examples examined include commercial relations, intellectual networks, educational systems, religious dynamics, consular activities, and revolutionary movements, and involve Muslims and Christians, Romanians and Serbs, Bulgarians and Greeks, Albanians and Turks. The contributions show that the Christian populations and their elites were an integral part of Ottoman society. The geographical spread of the formal and informal networks enriches our understanding of the terms ‘center’ and ‘periphery.’ They were either centered within the official Ottoman borders and extended their activities to other states and empires, or vice versa, located elsewhere, but also active in the Ottoman Empire. A common feature of these formations is their constant fluctuation, which enables a dynamic understanding of Ottoman history.

Albania and Kosovo have long, fascinating histories of connection with the wider European world. These essays explore this history from the 15th century to the 20th, through stories of Italian pilgrims, British diplomats, Albanian village girls converting to Islam, Muslims practising secret Christianity, and Ottoman men enslaving fellow citizens.

Although best known as an eminent classical archaeologist, Sir Arthur Evans was also passionately interested in the history of Albania. An authority on ancient Illyria, his sophisticated sense of the region's ancient roots infused his understanding of the complex culture and politics of the Balkans in the 19th century and combined to make him an authoritative and entertaining guide to this important subject. In Albanian Letters, Evans not only explores the implications of the key political events of this period (for example, the formation of the Albanian League in 1878) but also paints a vivid picture of the country's complex social and cultural make-up. In the late 19th century, the questions of nationalism and national identity were a major preoccupation for Albanians. Albanian Letters looks at how Albanians' views of their homeland were affected by developments taking place at the time, including increasing awareness of ethnic differences, population migration and changes to its distinctive culture and tradition. Albanian Letters offers a vivid snapshot of a nation at a critical period in its development.

"The death of head of state Enver Hoxha and the loss of his father leave Bujar growing up in the ruins of Communist Albania and of his own family. Only his fearless best friend, Agim--who is facing his own realizations about his gender and sexuality--gives him hope for the future. Together the two decide to leave everything behind and try their luck in Italy. But the struggle to feel at home--in a foreign country and even in one's own body--will have corrosive effects, spurring a dangerous search for new identities"--

From the late nineteenth century to the post-communist period, Albanian and Georgian political and intellectual elites have attributed hopes to “Europe,” yet have also exhibited ambivalent attitudes that do not appear likely to vanish any time soon. Albanians and Georgians have evoked, experienced, and continue to speak of “Europe” according to a tense triadic entity—geopolitics, progress, culture—which has generated aspirations as well as delusions towards it and themselves. This unique dichotomy weaves a nuanced, historical account of a changing Europe, continuously marred by uncertainties that greatly affect these countries’ domestic politics as well as foreign policy decisions. A systematic and rich account of how Albanians and Georgians view Europe, this book offers a fresh perspective on the vast East/West literature and, more broadly, on European intellectual, cultural, and political history.