Global Temperance and the Balkans

Nikolay Kamenov is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland. His research interests include global history, the history of cooperatives and economic history, in addition to the history of alcohol and temperance.

1 Introduction: Temperance and the Palimpsest of Global History.- 2 A Global Imaginaire: Fighting Alcohol around the World.- 3 Missionaries: The Rise and Fall of Protestant Temperance on the Balkans.- 4 Scientists: Degeneration, Eugenics and the Scientific Approach to Alcoholism in Interwar Bulgaria.- 5 The Youth Temperance Movement.- 6 Socialists: The Politics of Temperance.- 7 Visual Histories: Intermediality in Temperance Campaigns.- 8 Conclusion.

"For work outside the Anglosphere and the chronology of the American temperance movement, Nikolay Kamenov's 'Global Temperance and the Balkans' is a worthy contribution. He does not spring to the other extreme of neglecting Anglo-American temperance but sets the local case in the context of reformers' international ambitions. ... The book is important in showing the impacts (and limitations) of the Protestant movement of the late 19th century." (Ian Tyrrell, H-Soz-Kult, hsozkult.de, May 31, 2024)

"In his excellent and important new book, Nikolay Kamenov uses the imagery of the palimpsest to puzzle through the impact of the global temperance movement in Bulgaria. ... The temperance movement in Bulgaria proved a resilient space for thinking ... . This is Kamenov's most important contribution, highlighting the role that the international temperance movement shaped local imaginaires as a civic space where new futures emerged." (Christofer Scarboro and Wilkes-Barre, Comparativ -Zeitschrift für Globalgeschichte und vergleichende Gesellschaftsforschung, Vol. 33 (1), 2023)