Bulgaria was once the poorest and the least known of the Eastern Bloc countries. After the fall of the communist regime in 1989, Bulgaria made democratization strides, becoming a member of NATO (2004) and the European Union (2007). Unfortunately, corruption was rife and remains so. This edition follows the format of the previous two, which were authored by Detrez (Univ. of Ghent); he published the first in 1998 and is coauthor of Europe and the Historical Legacies in the Balkans (2008). The current volume replaces the earlier editions and, like them, supplies maps, acronyms, abbreviations, and appendixes of political parties, heads of state, prime ministers, and Bulgarian cabinets from 1989 to present. The introduction covers Bulgarian political history, and the chronology covers historical beginnings in antiquity through November 2014. The dictionary section has been expanded and updated with more than 700 cross-referenced entries. The fine classified bibliography (with an introduction) is organized by subject (widely ranging from Bulgaria's ethnicity and politics to its flora and fauna), has been greatly enlarged with citations in English and other languages, and includes a separate listing of Internet resources. Summing Up: Recommended. All academic audiences; general readers.

Choice Reviews

Those who take more than a fleeting glance at the Dictionary must be impressed by how thoroughly the author knows the country whose history he is describing. He covers not only its political, economic and social history, but also its culture, devoting, for instance, three pages to Bulgarian cinema, a subject of which few Western writers have knowledge. . . .This Dictionary will certainly enlighten its readers about the past and present of a country which does not often figure in the Western media.

Reference Reviews