Reviews
a fascinating study of the character of post-socialist nationalism in Mongolia./ The study has wider implications for research in nationalism, ethinicity and self-determination in the post-Cold War world. It will be required reading for scholars concerned with national identity and ethnicconflict./ Ian Jackson, Manchester Metropolitan University, The Ethnic Conflict Research Digest, Vol 2, No 1, Feb 1999., "This book encompasses at once a history of the emergence of a Mongolian nation and its ongoing struggles over positioning during the postsocialist transition. Based on fieldwork in the capital of Mongolia--Ulann Baatar--and other sites, Bulag recounts the complex history of the Soviet making of a unitary nationality out of a complex landscape of nearly twenty Mongol ethnic groups. . . .Informed equally strongly by British social anthropology and by postcolonial theory, writing here as an expert historian and analyst and there as a passionate Mongol, Bulag's is a masterful rendering of the cultural politics that demarcate the figure of the Mongolian." --Louisa Schein in American Anthropologist "This is an excellent study of the Mongol struggle to reestablish their identity."--Choice, 'The book makes compelling reading, partly because it dwells on the social problems and negative aspects of ethnic and gender relations in Mongolia, which are much less well known than the officially sponsored positive images. Bulag's argument is richly illustrated with telling examples,anecdotes and jokes.'David Sneath, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol.24, No.2, March 2001, 'There can be no doubt that this is an important book ... Throughout the book, the richness and passion of his language stirs the reader. Fascinating details emerge ... There are absorbing sections on the symbolism of food and animals in relatoin to ethnicity and on gender ... It is a braveand remarkable book, has already aroused fierce debate, and will become obligatory reading for anyone interested in Mongolia and Mongols.'Carole Pegg, School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 64:1, 2001, 'Bulag uses a range of fascinating material that spans not only his own fieldwork observations and interviews but also academic and popular sources and media debates ... He is particularly successful in the way he integrates the personal subjective context of his research with his majorarguments ... in many ways this is a bold and challenging book.'Sarah Dunlop, China Journal, Issue 43, January 2000, "This book encompasses at once a history of the emergence of a Mongolian nation and its ongoing struggles over positioning during the postsocialist transition. Based on fieldwork in the capital of Mongolia--Ulann Baatar--and other sites, Bulag recounts the complex history of the Soviet making of a unitary nationality out of a complex landscape of nearly twenty Mongol ethnic groups. . . .Informed equally strongly by British social anthropology and by postcolonial theory, writing here as an expert historian and analyst and there as a passionate Mongol, Bulag's is a masterful rendering of the cultural politics that demarcate the figure of the Mongolian." --Louisa Schein in American Anthropologist "This is an excellent study of the Mongol struggle to reestablish their identity."-- Choice, 'This is an important book for anyone interested in the post-communist political debate in Mongolia, and the role that notions of ethnicity and purity played in the nationalist debate following the collapse of the Soviet empire.'Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol.24, No.2, March 2001, 'this book provides a unique insight into a particularly significant period in Mongolian history: the moment when, in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet empire, the Mongolian state struggled to reinvent itself in the midst of political and economic crisis and new varieties of nationalistthought emerged.'David Sneath, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol.24, No.2, March 2001
