Customer Reviews

Bosnia & Herzegovina (Cultures of the World)

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I found this book fascinating. It was part of Yugoslavia when I was growing up and in school. The only thing I really knew about was the war. It was great to read something that covered so much about the culture and history of this country. I sponsor a woman in starting a business in Bosnia and Herzegovina through Women for Women International and wanted to know more about her culture and whatnot. This book was great. Lots of info but did not read like a boring history text at all. I am now going to seek out other books in this series and learn more about other cultures I know little about.

Bosnia and Heregovina is a very interesting country to learn about for several reasons.

Religion wise in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Islam acounts for (40-44%), and Orthodox and Catholic Christianity acounts for (46-50%).

Population wise in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosniaks (Muslim) number about 40%, while the rest of the population is Serbs (Orthodox) and Croats (Catholic).

Given the fact that the author of this book also wrote the brutally terrible book on Serbia and Montenegro, there is a difference of night and day between his two endeavors. The book on Bosnia is brutally honest in giving the history of the region including the ethnic cleansing of the 1990s and the events surrounding pre-World War I Austria-Hungary of which Bosnia was a part. This book takes an honest look at those dark days and informs the reader that all was not well in this troubled land of the celebrated 1984 Winter Olympics.

In fact, the coziness of those Olympics is in stark contrast to the realities of civil war that broke out just eight years later. Those scars still remain and will likely be present forever. This is a land where history is never forgotten.

The book also talks about the economy and life in Sarajevo and other cities. It puts the communist past into perspective and gives a down to earth portrayal of the country. Though this book is but a very brief introduction to an extremely complex society, it is worth a look if your gradeshooler needsinformation for a social studies class project.