Balkan Babel: The Disintegration Of Yugoslavia From The Death Of Tito To Ethnic War, Second Edition [Paperback]

Sabrina Petra Ramet (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 1996 | ISBN-10: 0813325595 | ISBN-13: 978-0813325590 | Edition: 2nd

In this thoroughly updated and revised edition, which includes four new chapters and a new epilogue, a veteran observer of the Yugoslav scene describes the forces that have fragmented the country. Arguing that cultural and religious values underpin political behavior, Sabrina Ramet traces the steady deterioration of Yugoslavia’s social and political fabric over the past decade. This decline, she maintains, is deeply rooted in historical trauma and memory and was foreshadowed in the cultural sphere.Ramet lays the groundwork for understanding the current crisis by exploring the unfolding political debates from 1980–1986, the gathering crisis triggered by the ascent of Slobodan Miloševic to power in Serbia, and the dramatic collapse of the existing political order beginning in 1989. She ties these events to the often overlooked religious and cultural elements of society that have influenced political change. She then examines the political dynamics within Serbia and Croatia since 1991, the domestic and foreign challenges faced by independent Slovenia and Macedonia, the grinding conflict in Bosnia, and the repercussions of the war on gender relations and on cultural and religious life.With her detailed and graphic knowledge of the inescapable links between politics, culture, and religion, Ramet paints a strikingly original picture of the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the emergence of the Yugoslav successor states.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Sabrina P. Ramet is professor of political science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. She is the author of six other books, among them Whose Democracy? Nationalism, Religion, and the Doctrine of Collective Rights in Post-1989 Eastern Europe(1997) and Nihil Obstat: Religion, Politics, and Social Change in East-Central Europe and Russia(1998). She has also edited a dozen books, mostly about Eastern Europe and Russia.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Westview Press; 2nd edition (February 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813325595
• ISBN-13: 978-0813325590
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,447,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid Workmanship, April 1, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Balkan Babel: The Disintegration Of Yugoslavia From The Death Of Tito To Ethnic War, Second Edition (Paperback)

There is certainly no shortage of books on the former Yugoslavia, some simply awful and some quite good. this is one of the better written, and the authors are respected academics. Interesting thesis, not entirely original, but sufficiently intersting to be worth the purchase price.