Section One of the book—“Dilemmas of Modernity”—discusses fundamental and broad-ranging aspects of the modern era. The emergence and development of modernity are linked to profound issues of legitimacy. The second section, “Deconstruction and Normalization,” comprises six chapters that examine key aspects of the collapse and deconstruction of the totalitarian system, particularly in Bulgaria, as well as the problems and obstacles of the transition to democracy. The third section of the book—“Memory and Power”—continues the themes and develops the issues from the previous two sections, emphasizing the enduring constitutive role of ethnicity and religiosity, the need for new forms of solidarity, and the overt and latent manifestations of a crisis of legitimacy.