Product Description
In Balkan Fascination, ethnomusicologist Mirjana Lau%sevic, a native of the Balkans, investigates why so many Americans actively participate in specific Balkan cultural practices to which they have no family or ethnic connection. Going beyond traditional interpretations, she challenges the notion that participation in Balkan culture in North America is merely a specialized offshoot of the 1960s American folk music scene. Instead, her exploration of the relationship between the stark sounds and lively dances of the Balkan region and the Americans who love them reveals that Balkan dance and music has much deeper roots in America's ideas about itself, its place in the world, and the place of the world's cultures in the melting pot. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Balkan Fascination isn't for the masses, but it IS fascinating for many!
Many folks have found their niche in the Balkan Music craze...dancing, singing, and playing the instruments of the Balkan countries even though they may have no connection to these ethnicities at all! This book explores the reasons and the history behind this exploration and its development here in the US. A enclosed CD/DVD helps the reader to become a Balkan fan also!HIGHLY recommended! ... Read more

Product Description
The Roma presence in the European part of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans is centuries old and it is not by accident that this region has often been called the second motherland of the Gypsies. This is the first book to be published on the history, ethnography, social structure and culture of the Gypsies in the Ottoman Empire. It is based on archival sources, mainly detailed tax registers, special laws, guild registers and court documents. Notes on Gypsies in books by foreign travelers are also included. ... Read more

Product Description
Webster's bibliographic and event-based timelines are comprehensive in scope, covering virtually all topics, geographic locations and people. They do so from a linguistic point of view, and in the case of this book, the focus is on "Balkans," including when used in literature (e.g. all authors that might have Balkans in their name). As such, this book represents the largest compilation of timeline events associated with Balkans when it is used in proper noun form. Webster's timelines cover bibliographic citations, patented inventions, as well as non-conventional and alternative meanings which capture ambiguities in usage. These furthermore cover all parts of speech (possessive, institutional usage, geographic usage) and contexts, including pop culture, the arts, social sciences (linguistics, history, geography, economics, sociology, political science), business, computer science, literature, law, medicine, psychology, mathematics, chemistry, physics, biology and other physical sciences. This "data dump" results in a comprehensive set of entries for a bibliographic and/or event-based timeline on the proper name Balkans, since editorial decisions to include or exclude events is purely a linguistic process. The resulting entries are used under license or with permission, used under "fair use" conditions, used in agreement with the original authors, or are in the public domain. ... Read more

Product Description

With the transfer of German units to the western front in the spring of 1918, the position of the Central Powers on the Macedonian front worsened. Materiel became scarce and morale among the Bulgarian forces deteriorated. The Entente Command perceived in Macedonia an excellent opportunity to apply additional pressure to the Germans, who were already retreating on the western front. In September, Entente forces undertook an offensive directed primarily at Bulgarian defenses at Dobro Pole. Balkan Breakthrough tells the story of that battle and its consequences. Dobro Pole was the catalyst for the collapse of the Central Powers and the Entente victory in southeastern Europe -- a defeat that helped persuade the German military leadership that the war was lost. While decisive in ending World War I in the region, the battle did not resolve the underlying national issues there.

Customer Reviews (1)

The Macedonian Front from the Bulgarian viewpoint
The story of a little-known battle of a little known front of World War I. The Macedonian front doesn't get a lot of ink in English speaking countries (or elsewhere, I'd wager) but this is a readable and thorough account of that front's final battle, written from the point of view of the main Central Power's protagonist there: the Bulgarians. A worthwhile read for anyone with an interest in WWI, if only for the subject's obscurity. The book is actually well-written and provides the whole context to the First World War in the Balkans.

The book gets 3 stars from me for 2 reasons. It certainly could have used a good editor. In fact, some of the sentences are so mangled that one has to wonder if the author's first language is English. Additionally, the maps suffer in quality and quantity. Dozens of places are mentioned in the text that don't appear on any map. The maps themselves have little detail and aren't terribly helpful to the reader who is trying to follow the campaigns. The author should have been aware that most readers aren't familiar with southern Balkan geography. ... Read more

Product Description
This is volume 2 of a 2 volume work which provides a military history of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia between 1990 and 1995. Produced by two military analysts in the Central Intelligence Agency who tracked military developments in the region thoughout this period and then applied their experience to producing an unclassified treatise for general use. This volume is designed to provide specialists with more comprehensive accounts of individual battles and campaigns. Addresses in depth such topics as the organization of the Bosnian Serb Army and the status of the UN Protection Force. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Product Description
Discusses the development of ethnic nationalism among Bulgars, Croatians, Serbians, and Macedonians
... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The Origins of the South Slavs
I purchased this book for use as a quick reference on the time period and region, fully expecting it to be too dry for sustained reading. I was very pleasantly surprised. This is a lively, interesting account with just the right amount of detail.

The author begins with a geographic description of the Balkan region and an overview of its history until about 600 AD. The subsequent history might properly be called "The Origins and Development of the South Slavs". The next decisive event in Balkan history - the Slavic Invasions - is treated in some detail. The Slavs of the time, although numerous, were fragmented and lacked any centralized control. They also fielded an army predominately composed of lightly armed foot soldiers. So foreign tribes of horsemen - The Turkic Bulgars, and the probably Iranian Serbs and Croats - were able to subjugate and dominate groups of Slavs. Since the Slavs were much more numerous, they were ultimately able to assimilate the invaders - but kept their tribal names.

The development and history of Bulgaria takes up most of the book, the rest deals with the Serbs, Bosnians, Pannonian Croatians, and Dalmatian Croatians. Other Balkan peoples such as Vlachs and Albanians, who were re-emerging in history at this time, are hardly mentioned at all, nor are the Greeks (I mean the Greeks of Greece, not the Byzantines, who were obviously major participants in the events of this book). The Macedonians Slavs at the time were considered Bulgarians. And the other powers in the area - Hungarians, the afore-mentioned Byzantines, Pechenegs, Cumans, Normans, Venetians, Franks - are mentioned only insofar as they impacted the history of the South Slavs.

Which is not to imply this is a bad thing - the resulting history is very tight and focused. The origins of the South Slavs, and the history of Bulgaria, are interesting topics.

I found myself wondering why Bulgaria gets so much attention. Part of the reason might be that due to Byzantium's close proximity, this area was better and more decisively documented in the sources. Perhaps this area is of special interest to the author. Upon finishing the book, however, I concluded that the reason for the prominent role of Bulgaria in this narrative is that Bulgaria seems to have established the most powerful and abiding state in this time period.

This is an excellent and fascinating narrative, and I find myself looking forward to purchasing the next volume, the continuation of the story into the late Middle Ages.

Enjoyable and Easy
I think that this book is really simple in vocabulary and in its subject. I really didnt become tired of reading this book so I think that the authors style is very good for the beginners.Another plus for this book is that the author rarely expands its subject from the Balkan History. And the impartial position of the author is another plus.And if you want to learn Balkan history ,Slavic and Turkish(Bulgarian)participationand the stance of the Romans(Europeans insist on Byzantine) this book is the one o the good ones.

One of a kind....
A few years ago I became interested in the difficulties in the former Yugoslavia--now Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, and a few other entities.After reading a number of contemporary works about the causes of past and current conflicts in the Balkans, I decided none of the authors agreed on every point or many points for that matter, and most seemed a bit biased in their reporting and interpretation of events, probably owing to their inability to attend to the terrible events of the last century and not choose sides.

THE EARLY MEDIEVAL BALKANS is the most objective work availableabout what really happened all those years ago when the Byzantine Empire ruled what is now known as the Balkans, and Serbs, Croatians, Ottoman Turks, and others migrated and/or invaded and settled the area the Italian Romans called Illyria.

The book is part of a two-part work covering the Middle Ages in the Balkans.Part I THE EARLY MEDIEVAL BALKANS includes a critical survey of the area from the Sixth to the late Twelfth Century. Part II THE LATE MEDIEVAL BALKANS covers the period from the late Twelfth Century until the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in the 14th Century.Fine was a Professor of History at the University of Michigan for a number of years, and his work is incredibly scholarly. He has been considered the leading expert in the world on this topic by his colleagues.

I came away from the work with two impressions.The first is that the various ethnic groups who inhabited or invaded the Balkans (and there were so many one loses count after awhile as they migrate or remigrate over and over) were so thoroughly mixed during the Middle Ages that the indigenous tribe, whatever that was, must have disappeared thousands of years ago.The second fact I deduced from Dr. Fine's work is that most if not all the animosity between groups today probably has a basis in religious conflict. Given that the three major religions involved -- Roman Catholic, Orthodox Serb, and Muslim advocate love as an organizing principle, one has to wonder what went wrong.

I gave this book 4 stars because it is difficult to read.For a more "fun" read try the series on Byzantium by J.J.Norwich.

A classic!
I am from Bosnia, of mixed ethnic origins, and after 7 years of exile, I had only faint memories of the history classes dedicated to the Middle Ages (in the 6th grade). This book refreshed my memory, broughta part of mypast back to me, and helped clear up some misconceptions. It makes me veryhappy to own it!

A classic!
I am from Bosnia, of mixed ethnic origins, and after 7 years of exile, I had only faint memories of the history classes dedicated to the Middle Ages (in the 6th grade). This book refreshed my memory, broughta part my pastback to me, and helped clear up some misconceptions. It makes me very happyto own it! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Look into it before you buy it
The book is a wealth of information, and it is one of the only good, all-encompassing books on albanian history. But make sure you know that it is a chronological history, almost a medieval-style chronicle. There is almost no overall theme or story from the author, and we get very little of the author's own views, it is simply a day-by-day, month-by-month history of Albania in the 20th century. If you know Albanian history rather well, read this to enhance your knowledge. If you are trying to get to learn Albanian history, read something else first, probably Edwin Jacques' 'The Albanians' is the best introductory all-serving book.

The history of the Albanian state in English
This is the first concise and complete history of the modern Albanian state in English. A chronological order of events following the years of independence to the consolidation of the Albania state and the Albanian Monarchy. Pearson provides a detailed and vivid account of Albanian political personalities and the overall political environment of the time. The book is objective and free of any domestic or international political biases, which is difficult to maintain given the regions turbulent past. Recommended for anyone interested in Albanian studies, Balkan or Eastern European history. ... Read more

Product Description

Beginning some fifty years before the Balkan wars of 1912 and 1913, Bato Tomaševic's vivid memoir recounts, through his life story and the individual destinies of relatives and friends, Yugoslavia's numerous political upheavals and the harrowing experiences of the First and Second World Wars.

Tomaševic was born into a Montenegrin family in the politically charged region of Southern Yugoslavia. Beginning with his upbringing in Italian- and German-occupied Cetinje, Tomaševic tells a story of hardships and daily executions, the heroism of underground workers, and the effects of occupation on an ordinary family. At the age of thirteen, Tomaševic joined Tito's Partisans and experienced firsthand the horrors of the Second World War. He fought against the Chetniks and barely escaped death in Eastern Bosnia.

After studying law at Belgrade University, Tomaševic spent two years at Exeter. He became a Yugoslav diplomat and survived the Munich air crash of 1958. Following his diplomatic service, Tomaševic returned to Belgrade to work as a journalist and publisher. He describes the breakup of the Federation after Tito's death and the efforts by Serbian and Croatian nationalists to create a Greater Serbia and Greater Croatia through aggression and ethnic cleansing. Tomaševic's saga ends with NATO's bombing of Serbia in 1999 and the imprisonment of President Miloševic. Fascinating, tragic, and even comic,Life and Death in the Balkans is the story of a young boy whose life, much like the history of Yugoslavia, has been characterized by inescapable violence and brutal conflict.

Product Description
Roudometof explains the reasons why the Balkans have been immersed in recurrent ethnic conflict. The book illustrates the world-historical process of globalization by providing an in-depth discussion and analysis of a specific regional case. It goes on to explain the rise of nationalism in the region and why this has led to chronic ethnic conflict. ... Read more

Product Description
The dramatic, tumultuous, and often tragic human events that erupted in the Balkan Peninsula following the collapse of communism between 1989 and 1991 have captured the Western world's attention throughout the past decade. The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of the Balkans provides 50 two-color, full-page maps, each accompanied by a facing page of explanatory text.These maps illustrate key moments in Balkan history in a way that is immediate and comprehensible, making it come alive.Students will regard it as a useful reference, and general readers will enjoy it for its clarity and wealth of information. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Maps and brief overview that are easy to understand
If you're looking for maps of how the Balkan borders have been drawn and redrawn between 600-1999 AD, plus a brief textual overview on the facing page, this is the book for you. Several earlier maps also show the general dispersion of the various cultures that inhabited that portion of the Balkans (not always an easy task).

Understanding the Balkans is difficult (well, at least it is for an American like me) ... but this book has helped me more than one time to grasp the often turbulent events that constantly reshaped Balkan countries. As kingdoms and empires grew and shrank, the borders often changed ... and new countries were created and old countries disappeared.

It's nice to have this brief progression through time in the form of the changing geography. It's a reference book that anyone who is interested in Balkan history will find useful over and over. And it's never out of date, since 600 AD will never occur again.

Honest attempt, weak result
* * * Do NOT buy hardcover version! * * *

Summary:
Maps: **(*)
Text: ***(*)
To be used together with another atlas. (e.g. "Historical Atlas of East Central Europe, by P. R. Magocsi or Cartographia's "Történelmi Világatlasz" (in Hungarian))

Just like when I first discovered the "Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe" I thought: "At last a specific work on the topic in English!".
Well, despite the range of the maps - 50, listed at the end of the review - it was quite a disappointment.

The maps...They can at best be described as of "average" quality, but words like "perfunctory" or "sloppy" could be used as well.There is no excuse for the roughness and distortion of state boundaries, the lack of rivers and cities/towns.And the actual errors to them have yet to be mentioned. Still, since these maps cover a smaller area than their counterparts in the
"Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe", they are a bit more precise, but far from detailed.

It must be noted as well that GEOGRAPHICALLY the Northern boundary of the Balkan Peninsula is defined by the Danube - Sava - Kulpa rivers. Thus Slovenia is entirely and Croatia and Romania is partly outside of it. However, while historically Ljubljana and Zagreb is rightly considered Central European, Bucharest is linked to the Balkans. Despite it's acquisition of Transylvania in 1918/20.

It must be noted that the author makes an honest attempt to be objective in the history telling, by sometimes presenting several versions/views on the same event, BUT I am sure that even this won't satisfy everybody.
However, the style of the text is sometimes "odd". "Nationalist", is one of the much preferred word used by the author, especially when dealing with newer history.The difference between "nationalism" and "patriotism" is apparently very subjective.

All in all, the map part of this atlas is suitable for low-level studies of the area only, and the text for high-school studies.

A last remark: This volume shares 14 - or 1/3 - out of it's 50 maps with the "Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe" from the same series. (Nos. (5), 8, 11, 13, 17, 19, 21, 25, 30, 32, 33, 37, 38, 49 and 50, as observed by the author of these lines.)
So basically, the "Historical Atlas of the Balkans" - with it's 36 additional maps of the Balkans - is a complementary to the "Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe".

The Maps:
1: Physical
2: Political, 2001
3: Natural Resources
4: Demographic
5: Cultural
6: The East Roman Balkans, Late 6th Century
7: Avar, Slav, and Bulgarian Invasions, 7th Century
8: Rise of the First Bulgarian Empire, 7th-10th Centuries
9: Fall of the First Bulgarian Empire, Mid-10th-Early 11th Centuries
10: Rise of Medieval Croatia, 19th-12th Centuries
11: The Balkans, Late 12th Century
12: Crusades in the Balkans, Late 11th-Early 13th Centuries
13: The Balkans after the Fourth Crusade, 1204-1214
14: Byzantium Resurrected, 1261-1328
15: Rise of the Romanian Principalities, Mid-13th-14th Centuries
16: Rise of Medieval Bosnia, 13th-14th Centuries
17: Rise of Medieval Serbia, 13th-Mid-14th Centuries
18: Political Fragmentation, Mid-14th Century
19: Ottoman Expansion in the Balkans, Mid-14th-Early 16th Centuries
20: Fall of Constantinople, 1453 (and Ottoman Istanbul)
21: Apex of Ottoman Expansion, Mid-16th Century
22: Ottoman Millet Organization, Mid-16th-17th Centuries
23: Habsburg Croatian-Slavonian Military Border, 17th-18th Centuries
24: The Ottoman Balkans, Late 17th-18th Centuries
25: Emergence of Modern Balkan States, 1804-1862
26: The Balkan Crisis of 1875-1876
27: The "San-Stefano" Balkans, March 1878
28: The "Berlin" Balkans, July 1878
29: Balkan State Territorial Expansion, 1881-1886
30: The Macedonian Question
31: The Balkans, 1908
32: Bosnia-Hercegovina, 1908-1914
33: The Balkan Wars, 1912-1913
34: World War I in the Balkans
35: The Post-Versailles/Lausanne Balkans
36: Yugoslavia, 1929-1941
37: Post-Trianon Romania, 1920-1938
38: The Transylvanian Question
39: Bulgaria, 1919-1940
40: Greece, 1923-1941
41: Albania, 1921-1939
42: The Balkans, 1939-1940
43: World War II-The 1941 Balkan Campaign
44: The Axis-Dominated Balkans, 1941-1944
45: Balkan Cominform States 1945-1947
46: The Greek Civil War, 1946-1949
47: Splits in Communism, 1948-1960
48: Collapse of Communism, 1989-1991
49: Wars of Yugoslav Succession, 1991-1995
50: The Kosovo Crisis, 1999

Review based on First paperback September 2001 edition. ... Read more

Product Description
A clear and concise guide to the Eastern Question - the problem facing the European states of how to react to the decline of the Ottoman Empire. A L MacFie's study shows how the question was a major factor in shaping the policies of all the major powers from the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-74 down to the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. ... Read more

Product Description
We hope we have dealt fairly with all these peoples. Mediaeval history is mostly a record of bloodshedding and cruelty and the Middle Age has been prolonged to our own time in most parts of the Balkans and is not yet over in some parts. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Essential reading for those who "skipped" Constantinople in school
Why study Byzantine and Ottoman history as it relates to the Balkans...?

Simply because you can't understand any other part of European history without knowing about this key region...and it's key players--the Eastern Romans of Constantinople, and later the Ottomans.

I am amazed that anyone would even try to understand European history from 600AD to 1914...without having a clear grasp of Byzantine and Ottoman history...This period in Europe was at the end of the Roman Empire...but before the current nation states of Europe were fully formed...or even imagined.The only "super power" during these key formative years was Byzantium a/k/a Constantinople,...later called Istanbul under the Ottomans...

My copy of this book is well marked up...and I won't part with it...

The writing style is highly readable...not forced or needlessly obscure...In short, this book is a "page turner" if you are interested in really understanding...not only the Balkans which are really the pawns in the story...but the other nations that made the Balkans their main geopolitical focus for a thousand years...which, quite frankly, was all of Europe as we now know it!

If Rudyard Kipling wrote a history of the Balkans
According to the copyright page of "A History of the Balkans," this book was published in 1991. On page 80, it says "down to our own day (1918)...." And on page 519 it says "but so far (June 1922)...."

I bought Ferdinand Schevill's book because I wanted to learn more about the Balkan peninsula from another point of view besides that of the Ottoman Empire. This book is larded with asides to the reader which, after a few pages, become quite annoying. The author's value judgments are another annoyance which, when coupled with his references to "the yellow races," make the book an unpleasant read.

Before this book, I read Dennis P. Hupchick's "The Balkans from Constantinople to Communism." Of the two, I'd recommend Hupchick's book for its to-the-point style.Also, Hupchick's book has much clearer maps.

Excellent and informative book
As a non-historian interested in Balkan problems I found this book filled with historic details and descriptions that helped me elucidate reasons behind today's underlying conflicts. It reads like a novel occassionally with awry ironic tone and yet seems fair and unbiased. It will remain on my shelf to be re-read and referred to. ... Read more

Product Description
The Macedonian Question - the struggle for control over a territory with historically ill-defined borders and conflicting national identities - is one of the most intractable problems in modern Balkan history. In this lucid and persuasive study, Dimitris Livanios explores the British dimension to the Macedonian Question from the outbreak of the Second World War to the aftermath of the Tito-Stalin split.

Investigating British policy towards the Bulgar-Yugoslav controversy over Macedonia, the author assesses the impact of British actions and strategy during this period, with a particular focus on wartime planning concerning the future of Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, and attempts to prevent Tito from creating a federation of the South Slavs, both during and after the war. Making extensive use of British archives, Livanios brings to light important documentary evidence to offer a fresh perspective on the emergence of the federal Macedonian unit within Tito's Yugoslavia, and on the efforts to create a functioning Macedonian national ideology. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

a deeply flawed publication
The author of this important butflawed book is clearly a young Greek scholar; he has taken his PhD thesis and put it into what should have been publishable form. His research was in the main done in the PRO (now National Archives) where he read an astonishing number of recently declassified papers relating to the issue of Macedonia and the Macedonian Question during the 1940s. Insofar as it concerns solely Macedonia (however you choose to define that country) it supersedes all previous studies in English, French and German. This in spite of the fact that there are no major revelations to modify substantially the general picture of the historical events. The author has done his homework; his work was well-directed and carefully defined. He has managed to avoid the pitfalls the subject offers by rigorously restricting the scope of his subject and suppressing nationalist rhetoric. He deserved better of his publisher.
Nobody who has access to a good research library should buy this book. OUP has done a great disservice by allowing such a poorly edited, poorly proof-read, and poorly presented book to go on the market for $100 or, for that matter, $10. I will soon be putting up a web site, one part of which is devoted to a long essay on Greece during the German-Italian-Bulgarian occupation. Though the topic is not directly concerned with the Macedonian Question, I have chosen to add an excursus on Yugoslavia and Albania. When Mr. Livanios' book came out I had thought I might be able to add some material from it to my own discussion, which was very much the case as he has come up with some most interesting and important nuggets. But I was so angered by Oxford's slovenly treatment of his manuscript, that I felt it my duty to add a fourth excursus in which I itemize all the problems I found in the text-- there are probably more-- as well as discuss a few of his observations. This is a disgraceful production (right down to the lack of maps), for which OUP can offer no excuse. I extend my compliments to the author as well as my most sincere sympathies. ... Read more

Product Description
English summary: With Amerikas Weg auf den Balkan, author Andrea Despot presents an early interactional history of the United States and South-East Europe, including the Ottoman Empire and the Habsburg monarchy. The study period extends from the beginning of the Greek liberation war to the U.S. withdrawal from European politics in the 1920's. Embedded in a world historical context, this chronicle goes far beyond the diplomatic history and focuses on five mutually interrelated topics: society, economy, culture, migration, and politics. Using selected case studies and groups of actors a complex portrait of the overall US-South-East European relations is created. Despot highlights the gradually intertwining process in parallel with the globalization process of the "long" 19th Century and discusses their asymmetrical relationship structure in a global-symmetrical context. This shows how idealistic ideational impulses merged into a U.S. Balkan commitment supported by diverse interests, which eventually led to a consistent and continuously pursued policy in the Balkans. The relations across the Atlantic were stronger and more diverse than previously thought, and existed long before America achieved the status of a world power and intervened in the Balkans of today. Amerikas Weg auf den Balkan provides an indispensable contribution to transnational and trans-Atlantic dimensions of modern history. German text.German description:Mit Amerikas Weg auf den Balkan legt Andrea Despot eine fruhe Interaktionsgeschichte der USA und Sudosteuropas unter Einschluss des Osmanischen Reiches und der Habsburger Monarchie vor. Der Untersuchungszeitraum erstreckt sich vom Beginn des griechischen Befreiungskrieges bis zum Ruckzug der USA aus der europaischen Politik 1920. In einen weltgeschichtlichen Rahmen gebettet, geht diese Chronik weit uber die Diplomatiegeschichte hinaus und konzentriert sich auf funf wechselseitig aufeinander bezogene Themenfelder: Gesellschaft, Wirtschaft, Kultur, Migration und Politik. Anhand ausgewahlter Fallbeispiele und Akteursgruppen entsteht ein vielschichtiges Gesamtportrat der amerikanisch-sudosteuropaischen Beziehungen. Andrea Despot durchleuchtet ihren graduellen Vernetzungsprozess parallel zum Globalisierungsprozess im "langen" 19. Jahrhundert und diskutiert ihre asymmetrische Beziehungsstruktur in einem weltsystemischen Sinnzusammenhang. Sie zeigt, wie sich ausgehend von ersten Impulsen ideeller Art, ein durch vielfaltige Interessen gestutztes US-amerikanisches Balkan-Engagement herausbildete, das schliesslich in eine koharente und kontinuierlich verfolgte Balkanpolitik mundete. Lange bevor Amerika den Status einer Weltmacht erreichte und im heutigen Balkan intervenierte, waren die Beziehungen uber den Atlantik hinweg ausgepragter und facettenreicher, als bisher angenommen. Amerikas Weg auf den Balkan liefert einen unverzichtbaren Beitrag zur transnationalen und trans-atlantischen Dimension moderner Geschichte. ... Read more

Product Description
The disintegration of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s ended the Yugoslavian Federation, which for nearly fifty years had succeeded in preserving a delicate coexistence among the ethnic, religious, and national components contained within it. Following this, the Balkans became a violent arena of confrontation due to these warring factions. "Islamic Terror in the Balkans" describes and analyzes the growth of radical Islam in the Balkans from its inception during the years of World War II to the present. Shay's account shows how the Bosnian War between the Muslims and the Serbs provided the historical opportunity for radical Islam to penetrate the Balkans, at a time when the Muslim world, headed by Iran and the various Islamic terror organizations, including al-Qaida, came to the aid of the Muslims in Bosnia. In the framework of the mobilization of these entities in aiding the Muslim side in the conflict, the operational and organizational infrastructure of Iranian intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards was established, as well as those operated by other Islamic terror organizations.When war in Bosnia ended, terrorist infrastructures remained in the Balkans and served as a basis for these entities' intervention in the confrontation that developed in the Balkans in the late-1990s, specifically in Kosovo and Macedonia. Today, the Balkans serve as a forefront on European soil for Islamic terror organizations, which exploit this area to promote their activities in Western Europe, Russia, and other focal points worldwide. Shay's analysis of terror activity in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and exposure of terror cells throughout the world, and particularly in Europe, attest to the increasing involvement of the "Balkan alumni" and of the terrorist infrastructure from this area in creating global terror activity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Weak book - not recommended
This book has no research and factual quality.I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Islamic terror and the Balkans
This book was excellent.It was what I needed in order to understand the Balkans and its connection to Islamic terror.I work in the region and in the terrorism related field and have learned a great deal from this book and the clear details presented in it.The author is definitely an expert in this field. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Birds eye view.Level of detail inconsistent.
Good, if brief, summary of Balkan campaign. Reviews political, logistical, and force aspects of the campaigns, but left me wanting to know more of somethings but less of others.For example, he lists a detailedorder of battle for the German forces arranged against Yugoslavia, butleaves you to find out on your own what the composition of a German TankCorps would be, when a simple table would provide lots of clarity. Forthe Yugoslavia campaign, the bulk of the writing involves preparations, andthe combat narrative is a bare skeleton.The Greek campaign is describedin somewhat more detail and leaves the reader with a better understanding.The photos might be interesting if they were not too fuzzy to interpret. The maps are almost illegible and therefore unhelpful. ... Read more