Product Description

Throughout history, the Balkans have been a crossroads, a zone of endless military, cultural, and economic mixing and clashing between Europe and Asia, Christianity and Islam, Catholicism and Orthodoxy. In this highly acclaimed short history, Mark Mazower sheds light on what has been called the tinderbox of Europe, whose troubles have ignited wider wars for hundreds of years. Focusing on events from the emergence of the nation-state onward, The Balkans reveals with piercing clarity the historical roots of current conflicts and gives a landmark reassessment of the region’s history, from the world wars and the Cold War to the collapse of communism, the disintegration of Yugoslavia, and the continuing search for stability in southeastern Europe.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #74722 in Books
• Published on: 2002-08-06
• Released on: 2002-08-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 240 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The Balkan wars of the 1990sDwhich Mazower persuasively calls a civil warDreinforced the meaning of the word "Balkan": the meaning that has little to do with geography or even ideology, yet everything with a violent way of life. The main challenge of this work is to denounce this one-dimensional Western stereotype and to approach the crisis of the Balkan lands "without seeing them refracted through the prism of 'the Balkans.'" Mazower, professor of history at Princeton and author of Dark Continent: Europe's Twentieth Century, has written a concise history of Europe's troubled southeastern corner that is both sympathetic to the region's never-ending struggle for identity and freedom from invaders and critical of its inhabitants' recurring failure to reconcile the religious and cultural differences imposed on them by the powers of the West and the East. But it is always the West that has written off the violence in the Balkans as primitive, argues Mazower. He realistically concludes that it is the nature of civil war rather than the Balkan mentality that is responsible for the recent violence. While this is not an innovative argument, it is surely a compelling and a significant one as it prudently clarifies how the Balkans got to this place, and then optimistically recognizes the promise of the region's much-needed economic and cultural renaissance. Mazower's tone is that of an aloof but skilled academic who often abandons chronological order and rushes through decades and centuries of a complex history in order to get to his point. This strategy will make it difficult for the less informedDa natural audience for such an introductionDto follow the argument, but those who are at least moderately familiar with the Balkans' past will value his thought-provoking implications. Containing as much opinion as fact, this is a highly suggestive analysis of an inexhaustible subject. Maps.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Adult/High School-An accessible discussion of the causes and circumstances for the historic and prevailing ethnic unrest in southeast Europe. Because of the brevity of this work, the author necessarily makes assumptions and offers opinion with minimal substantiating evidence, but critical readers can find much here to take to the examination of other information sources, including daily newspapers. Contrast between ethnic relations in the Balkans and in the United States is lively and compelling. Paired with Joe Sacco's graphic-format report, Safe Area Gorazde (Fantagraphics, 2000), this book would provide both classes and independent researchers with sufficient information to generate discussions in the realms of politics, social history, the influence of American culture in foreign affairs, religious tolerance, and more. This is a fine addition to an exemplary series of monographs by experts in a wide range of humanities and sciences.-Francisca Goldsmith, Berkeley Public Library, CA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The Balkans region is so well known for its ethnic conflicts that it has lent its name to generic definition of divisiveness. Mazower, a history professor, offers a primer on understanding the long and complicated conflict in the region where East meets West. Mazower traces the Asian cultural overtones that persist to this day to fourteenth century Ottoman influence. Because of its blended religions--both Christian and Muslim--and the fact that it has occupied an intermediate cultural zone between Europe and Asia, this area and its people have been viewed by the West with suspicion. But the apparent ethnic fragmentation is both complicated and deceptive, concealing unity of religious consciousness between ethnic groups. Mazower explores the forces of World War II and its aftermath that led to the temporary suppression of nationalist sentiment by creating two camps--the Communists versus the free world. But the end of cold war has reinvigorated the divisions for which the region is now famous. Vernon Ford
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Very Good...
The Balkans: A Short History is a excellant book, not only on the balkans but on the muslim and orthodox christian relationship from the ottomans to Hitler and modern issues of religon in the area which are often overshadowed by the middle east. A very good book.

Boring and tedious
After reading some of the reviews here, I had low expectations for this book and so I thought I would not be disappointed. I was wrong. This is a very dry and boring read. I know little about Balkan history so I thought that I could learn a lot by reading this short book, but I had a hard time staying interested. The author is very knowledgeable about the Balkans but he lacks the ability to excite readers. Perhaps his mistake was in undertaking a book that attempts to tell a region's history in about 170 pages.

If you know little about the Balkans then I would recommend skipping this book. There is a lot of breadth but little depth. You have no frame of reference. For example, if you told a Martian about September 11th facts without an appropriate context, then she (actually I should say "it", since Martians have no gender) would probably not appreciate the significance of the event. I also thought the book was poorly organized. It is not chronological which is not necessarily a poor way of organizing but in this case it made the book even more tedious.

A great intro to the region
The Balkans is an all around solid book covering such a complex subject. Anywhere there is such a clash of religions is always bound to be a hotbed. And Mazower does a wonderful job in showing this hotbed, but in also dispelling the commonly accepted notion a region that enjoys and lives for violence. In fact he goes one further and shows the culture in the Balkans is, in fact, no more violent, and quite possibly less, than many a Christian culture and region.

Without having read much on the Balkans before I feel pretty confident in Mazower's scholarship. His grasp on the subject is very in depth. I wish the book could have been longer and deeper in many areas, but this is most certainly a great introduction to the region.

All in all, a great short book on a complex region. I would recommend to anyone looking for an introduction to the region or to brush up on the region.

4 stars.