The Balkans: A Short History (Modern Library Chronicles) [Hardcover]

Mark Mazower (Author)

Book Description

Series: Modern Library Chronicles | Publication Date: November 14, 2000

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. Subject to violent shifts of borders, rulers and belief systems at the hands of the world's great empires--from the Byzantine to the Habsburg and Ottoman--the Balkans are often called Europe's tinderbox and a seething cauldron of ethnic and religious resentments.
        
Much has been made of the Balkans' deeply rooted enmities. The recent destruction of the former Yugoslavia was widely ascribed to millennial hatreds frozen by the Cold War and unleashed with the fall of communism. In this brilliant account, acclaimed historian Mark Mazower argues that such a view is a dangerously unbalanced fantasy. A landmark reassessment, The Balkans rescues the region's history from the various ideological camps that have held it hostage for their own ends, not least the need to justify nonintervention. The heart of the book deals with events from the emergence of the
nation-state onward. With searing eloquence, Mazower demonstrates that of all the gifts bequeathed to the region by modernity, the most dubious has been the ideological weapon of romantic nationalism that has been used again and again by the power hungry as an acid to dissolve the bonds of centuries of peaceful coexistence. The Balkans is a magnificent depiction of a vitally important region, its history and its prospects.

Editorial Reviews

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.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: Modern Library (November 14, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679640878
• ISBN-13: 978-0679640875
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 4.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (29 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #890,810 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A solid work on a complex history, July 31, 2005

By 

Stacey M Jones (Conway, Ark.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Balkans: A Short History (Modern Library Chronicles) (Paperback)

THE BALKANS: A SHORT HISTORY by Mark Mazower is part of a lovely series of small, attractively designed and published books by Modern Library called Chronicles. This book, while short (156 pages), is chock-a-block with information on the Balkans going back to the beginnings of the Ottoman empire in the region, and including not just the former Yugoslavia, but also Bulgaria, Romania and Greece. (It also includes a handy timeline in the beginning in 330 C.E. with the founding of Constantinople and ends in 1999 with the war in Kosovo between NATO states and Serbia.) The chapters, while assembling information on the history and region chronologically, also provide thematic studies on religious life, national identity, crime, politics and the effects of Empire in the Balkans (there's that word again!). "The Land and its Inhabitants" is the first chapter and goes back to deal with foundational issues of regional politics, religion and custom. "Before the Nation" is about the self-identities of Balkan residents before nation states separated people by ethnicity (and some of Mazower's assertions are surprising if seen through today's anti-Turk frame in the region, that Balkan Orthodox peoples felt more loyalty toward the Ottoman regime than toward Catholocism). "Eastern Questions" deals with the end of both the Ottoman empire in Europe and the end of the Habsburg dynasty, and "Building the Nation-State" sees the course of these non-nationalist people through to the Croatia-for-the-Croatians type of mentality in the region of the 1990s.

The book's jewels, I think are the introduction, "Names" and the epilogue, "On Violence" which seek to catch the reader in Balkan assumptions, shattering them and facilitating real learning. In the latter, Mazower asserts that it isn't age-old prejudices that caused the Balkan war of the 1990s, and that Balkan people are not a thing apart from Western Europeans or Americans. Mazower cautions that dismissing Balkan violence as isolated to the Balkans is self-serving for Westerners as well as blinding.

I think this is a good, but densely packed, work on the region's history, with new insights and supporting information. Mazower makes fine use of observations by travelers of the time in the Balkans to support the lens through which he views the region and make it lively. I recommend it.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just Long Enought to Appreciate the Complexity, December 24, 2000

By 

Ricky Hunter (New York City, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Balkans: A Short History (Modern Library Chronicles) (Hardcover)

Mark Mazower's The Balkans, A Short History, is the third in the series of books in the Modern Library Chronicles. Each is a very short history of a area or theme by a renowned historian (or writer) with a knowledge in that area. The small size (usually aroung one hundred and fifty pages) means that these are obviously not comprehensive histories. This is quite true of this particular volume on the Balkans. There is a brief chronology at the beginning but the book itself does not provide any narrative history at all. Instead the book is separated into themes allowing the reader to understand the complexity and personality of this complicated region. In that it is quite effective. It debunks many of the myths about the Balkans that have grown in this century but also leaves many questions. In a work such as this, that is a good thing as questions lead to further study and greater understanding. This will not give the reader a complete knowledge of this region but will serve beautifully as a jumping off point for further exploration. A very interesing read.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Concise, Clearly Written & Comprehensive, June 2, 2003

By 

Erika Borsos "pepper flower" (Gulf Coast of FL, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Balkans: A Short History (Modern Library Chronicles) (Hardcover)

In approximately 185 pages, the author manages to convey and briefly analyze significant historical events in the Balkans in a disciplined scholarly manner. I found the book very engaging and readable. I was amazed at the broad scope of information covered. It was not dull, dry or filled with boring details. He begins to unravel the "mystery" of the Balkans by a description of the land and terrain from which the word "Balkans" originated, few people realize the term was coined only about 200 years ago. For human interest, the author intersperses descriptions from diaries written 150 years ago or so by travelers to the region. We have been led to believe the regional conflicts have been ongoing since the beginning of time .. not so, and the author tells us why! Mark Mazower tells us when the conflicts started and who the major players are. The natural environment, mountains and valleys, created a lifestyle which is mostly agrarian and land-locked. The mountains made the area isolated and almost impenetrable both physically and ideologically to the more "civilized" ideas and industries of the more progressive Westernized European nations. One can understand how the region catapulted into an urbanized industrial complex *only* within the past 200 years. The author clearly writes about the social and political impact of the Ottoman Empire on the Balkans. I was impressed how the author could connect the "peasant values" and lifestyle with the political forces which constantly shaped and redefined the area. The migration of people and their adaptability to the imposed changes due to wars and conflicts is totally amazing. The impact of the decisions of the Great Powers on "nation-building" in the region was explained with erudite precision. The importance of the Greek language in the region due to the past is brought to light. The author's ability to tie ancient history to current events is quite remarkable. This book is highly recommended to anyone who has a desire to learn more about the people and history of the Balkans. It is written by a highly knowledgeable author, former Princeton University professor, who has no personal agenda or ties to the region.
Erika Borsos (erikab93)