Hvar in the Modern Age takes you on a sailing voyage to the island that mirrored states, empires, nationalities, wars, and extremes. The scents of rosemary, lavender, olives, sardines and wine are felt across the centuries of hardship, convolution, and integration. From medieval travellers to contemporary tourists, you are also invited on this magnificent journey into the heart of Adriatic.

Mateo Bratanic, Associate Professor, University of Zadar, Croatia 

In this open-access book, Florian Bieber traces the history of the Adriatic island of Hvar over half a millennium, from the advent of Venetian rule in the 15th century to the end of Yugoslavia in the late 20th century. The history of Hvar tells a larger story about modernity, the changing states and identity, tourism and the transnational entanglements of the Adriatic and Southeastern Europe. It shows how ordinary people dealt with the challenges of the rise of nations, transnational connections such as migration and tourism, and the shifting empires and states. Based on a wealth of archival materials from Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Austria, the UK, and the USA, Hvar in the Modern Age also reveals the complexities of the history of the Venetian Republic, the Habsburg Monarchy and Yugoslavia from a bottom-up perspective and the realities and challenges of island life in southeast Europe during the modern period.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).

Les mer
A history of southeast Europe and the Adriatic Sea since 1800 through the lens of the Croatian island Hvar, focusing on changing states, modernization, identity and tourism.

List of Images and Maps
Preface
Introduction
1. Of Islands
2. From Antiquity to the Decline of Venice
3. Benign Neglect? Habsburg Rule
4. Competing Nation States
5. The Socialist Experiment
6. Croatia after Independence
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

Les mer
A history of southeast Europe and the Adriatic Sea since 1800 through the lens of the Croatian island Hvar, focusing on changing states, modernization, identity and tourism.
First book to use the Island of Hvar as a prism to understanding the modern history of Southeast Europe

Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781350202658
Publisert
2026-02-19
Utgiver
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
156 mm
Aldersnivå
U, 05
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
304

Forfatter

Biografisk notat

Florian Bieber is Professor of Southeast European History and Politics and Director of the Center for Southeast European Studies at the University of Graz, Austria. He has been a visiting professor at Cornell University, USA, Central European University, the College of Europe, and the Universities of Belgrade, Sarajevo, and Bologna. He has been a Visiting Fellow at the Free University of Brussels, the LSE and New York University. Furthermore, he is president of the Association for the Study of Nationalities (ASN) and coordinator of the Balkans in Europe Policy Advisory Group (BiEPAG) and has written extensively about politics and the history of Southeastern Europe. His recent books include Debating Nationalism (Bloomsbury Academic, 2026) and The Rise of Authoritarianism in the Western Balkans (2020).