This monograph is a rare example of a history book that employs a longue durée perspective to narrate a regional transformation in the Balkans. The Prespa region, shared between North Macedonia, Albania, and Greece, is centered on the two lakes bearing the same name and the marshes and mountains surrounding it. Using a chronologic narration and an accessible style, it also appeals to an interested public beyond the narrow field of academia. It examines continuities and changes that shaped the political, economic, and social configuration of the region since prehistoric times. Its stated goal is twofold: on the one hand, to connect the people, history, and environment of the Prespa region, and on the other, to place real and invisible borders at the core of this story, dwelling on their acceptability for those living there (10).
The great strength of Lakes and Empires in Macedonian History is its regional focus, allowing for an in-depths analysis of multilayered historical interactions that only become visible when one zooms in to the grass-root level. This approach shows how different scales of historical transformation from the international, imperial, national, to the local manifested in the Prespa region. Since one characteristic of the areas was its high ethnic diversity, the authors do a wonderful job of showing how these changes affected the household level and how they reshaped the ties of the extended family (zadruga). Various political systems, such as the Roman and Ottoman empires or nation states co-opted local families, offering protection and economic opportunities. The most visible local effects of state consolidation included new taxation, resource exploitation (for instance of timber or fish), and since the nineteenth century, the conversion of commonly owned pastures into private or state farms. Technology and state intervention were the two main drivers of change in the region, transforming both the landscape and social relations. Colonization, irrigation channels, land terracing, marsh drainage, and later railroad connections re-ordered economic ties and other relations within and beyond the region.
Yet, in spite of this long history of outside intervention, the Prespa lakes and its surroundings remained a peripheral region where modernization projects only slowly gained track. The transhumant, semi-nomadic way of life and transnational kin-relations persisted well into the twentieth century. Such lingering continuity is best illustrated by the local Vlach community, whose peripatetic life often transcended clear-cut physical demarcations and ideological identities. It is quite telling that this community did not form its own national movement. Broadly speaking, multiple linguistic skills and fluid cultural identities that were wide-spread in the region challenged rigid national belongings. In an attempt to forge loyal citizens, education and religion turned into battlegrounds of the newly established nation states. Soon enough, the whole region was engulfed in military conflict in which armies, irregular troops and insurgents violently clashed over ideology and identity. All major armed conflicts of the twentieth century were bitterly fought in the Prespa region, with devastating local effects. The violent disintegration of Yugoslavia spilled over into the lake region, while vocal Greek and Bulgarian nationalism impended the international recognition of independent North Macedonia. In light of several international agreements that had been recently signed in the region, the transboundary Prespa National Park, jointly administered by the three neighboring states, could become a beacon of hope for local reconciliation and for sustainable environmental management.
The environmental component of this story is the most fascinating one and is also the lesser-known story. The longue durée perspective allows the reader to follow the pace of landscape transformation and gauge the impact of human intervention in different historical epochs. Until the nineteenth century, the authors remark, the pace of human induced changes, centered around practices of fishing, hunting, foraging, and grazing was slow. In the early nineteenth century, the Ottoman government introduced capitalist relations in the region, accelerating the pace of resource exploitation. The twentieth century came with a mixed bag of environmental issues: on the one hand, intensive agriculture led to soil degradation and low water levels, while on the other hand, depopulation caused by wars and interethnic conflicts enabled the fish and bird stocks to replenish. In this context, it is a pity that the two authors did not engage with the concepts of “Anthropocene” and “Capitalocene” to explain how the transformation of the Prespa fits into the global environmental debate. Also, they identify the region as having had the quality of wilderness (13–14). Since the debate around “wilderness” and its reimagination during modernity is so central to environmental history, I wondered how the Prespa region might contribute to it. In spite of these shortcomings, the book is a useful and overarching examination of a storied, transnational Balkan region.
