The Balkans: Nationalism, War & the Great Powers, 1804-1999

by Misha Glenny

Paperback, 2001

Status

Available

Call number

947

Genres

Collection

Your library

Publication

Penguin (Non-Classics) (2001), Trade Paperback, 726 pages

Description

A survey of two centuries of history, by Britain's commentator on the Balkans, Misha Glenny. It offers general readers a single narrative that explains the background to the terrible events on their television screens and provides insights into the roots of the region's reputation for violence. It also explores the origins of modern Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Greece, Bulgaria and Albania.

User reviews

LibraryThing member AlexTheHunn

As the subtitle of his work indicated, Mischa Glenny’s work concentrated on the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He arranged his material chronologi-cally, with geographical subdivisions within the chunks of time. He offered narra-tive history of the various times and places, focusing almost

exclusively on politi-cal and military subjects, although there are biographical sketches included oc-casionally. Throughout the book, Glenny drew from a wide array of primary sources.

Two themes permeate _The Balkans_. Glenny believed that the great pow-ers unduly interfered in Balkan affairs and that the majority of misery and suffer-ing which occurred there resulted either directly or indirectly from one or more of these external meddlings. He raised this idea in his introduction and he ham-mered it home in his subsequent chapters. Glenny’s other principal theme was that Balkan people are nothing more nor less than individuals with their own dreams and aspirations. They are not more genetically predisposed towards ra-cial hatred, nor ethnic biases than any other people. Glenny hoped to show that whatever problems and enmity that may exist in the Balkans can be explained in terms of recent events without resorting to “ancient hatreds�Â?. Each of these themes is a manifestation of GlennyÃ¢ÂÂs general premise that the West does not understand the Balkans.

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LibraryThing member rnsulentic

This is a good introduction to the history of the Balkans starting in 1804. As Bismark is supposed to have said "It's always some damn thing in the Balkans" and Glenny documents the Great Power interventions decently enough. The book suffers though, with Glenny's take on the Balkans after the Fall

of the Berlin Wall, focusing more on the break up of Yugoslavia after the death of Tito, which is to be expected, since Glenny wrote another book entitled "The Fall of Fall of Yugoslavia". Very little is said about post cold war Romania, Bulgaria or Turkey, and only a little about Greece in the context of the current Eurozone currency crisis. Rather deafening by it's absence is any discussion of the after effects of 9/11/2001 on the area, other than a couple cursory remarks about Turkey and it's non involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. That said, up to the end of the Cold War, this is a solid introduction to the subject.

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LibraryThing member SFToohey

Fascinating. Overwhelming. I've again started reading from the beginning, for the third time. So many names, so many titles, and empires and countries and shifting borders. I've not yet gotten past page 200. It's not dull, it's simply SO MUCH! So I began again, and my intention is to get a bead on

who is who and why they're doing what they're doing, and to whom.

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LibraryThing member jeterat

This was a very interesting read. It was a good combination of in-depth on certain regional subjects and general overview. I will say, it did suffer from the "floating name" issue I occasionally see in history writing; that is, a new leader introduced as a last name only in the middle of a sentence

with no context or previous background. This issue got worse towards the end of the book. I do have some background in Balkan history and was able to follow (or Google) names that I didn't know, but it was somewhat annoying. A good editor would have rooted those out. I suspect that this book was at one time much longer and then cut down to meet the standard 500-700 page limit for most mainstream histories. I wouldn't let it deter you from picking this up. Totally recommend this read.

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