Macedonia and the Macedonians, Vol. 2

Macedonia and Macedonians by Ivan Ivanić (1908) is an early twentieth-century Serbian nationalist work written in the context of the Macedonian Question. Produced during a period of intense political rivalry in Ottoman Macedonia, the book seeks to define the geographical boundaries of Macedonia and to interpret the ethnic identity of its Slavic population in line with Serbian state and national interests. It is explicitly framed as a response to competing Bulgarian narratives.

The book’s central claim, that the Slavic population of Macedonia is ethnically Serbian, reflects the dominant Serbian ideological position of the time rather than an objective ethnographic analysis. Ivanić rejects both Bulgarian interpretations and the existence of a distinct Macedonian identity, presenting language, folklore, and customs through a selectively constructed Serbian national framework while overlooking local processes of cultural and linguistic development.

Today, the work is primarily valued as a historical source illustrating how Macedonia and its population were subjected to competing national claims in the early twentieth century. Rather than offering an impartial account of Macedonian history, it exemplifies broader efforts by neighboring states to appropriate Macedonia through national historiography, often at the expense of recognizing the Macedonian people as a distinct historical and cultural community.