The Destruction of Yugoslavia: Tracking the Break-Up 1980-1992 [Paperback]

Branka Magas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 17, 1993

The year 1992, scheduled to be a milestone on the road to European unity, saw Sarajevo and other European cities bombarded slowly to pieces and their inhabitants starved before the TV eyes of the world. It saw two million Bosnian Moslems threatened with Europe's first genocide since World War II; most of them already driven from their homes by massacre, rape and terror. It saw Bosnia's legal, multi-ethnic government treated as a mere 'warring party' and pressed to surrender by Western governments eager for peace at any price. And it also saw a liberal and left opinion in the West unable to offer any explanation for the continuing war beyond variations on the racist notion of an innate propensity of violence among the peoples of Yugoslavia, or indiscriminate lamentations about the evils of nationalism. Combining political analysis, reportage, polemic and personal reflection, this book provides the first inside account and analysis of the tragic path leading to Yugoslavia's break-up. Against the background of events as they occurred since Tito's death in 1980, it tracks the process whereby an equitable settlement between the country's constituent was destroyed by an increasingly virulent Great-Serb nationalism, bent on recentralising the country under its own hegemony. The book is written not by a passive spectator but by a participant with a firm grasp of Yugoslavia's history, which accounts for the breadth of its content. As the decade it covers draws to a close, Branka Magas's initial cautious optimism changes to a growing intimation of impending tragedy, and finally to outrage at the slaughter visited on upon Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina by the Serbian army, with the tolerance or complicity of Western chancelleries. The Destruction of Yugoslavia represents a unique documentary testimony to Yugoslavia's regression towards disintegration, war, and the horrors of 'ethnic cleansing'; a testimony which is frighteningly accurate.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Magas, a Croatian journalist and historian, offers some pointed, alternative perspectives on the former Yugoslavia in this compilation of her often-prescient articles, written for New Left Review and other journals. Though this is not a comprehensive or narrative history, and some articles are redundant, Magas adds to the literature of Yugoslavia by emphasizing the politics of intellectuals; she identifies the 1981 institution of martial law in the province of Kosovo as a watershed, since Serbian leftist intellectuals did not protest but rallied to nationalism. Magas criticizes intellectuals inside and outside the country for not understanding the link between uenven economic development and nationalist intolerance. Serbian nationalism, she observes, is backed by "the only structures of the Yugoslav Communist state that managed to escape the process of democratization: the Serbian Communist Party and the Army High Command." The book also includes manifestos and letters from Yugoslavian organizations and from Yugoslavians outside the country. Magas's writings show that at least some observers were warning of chaos long before it erupted.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

So significant an event as the dissolution of socialist Yugoslavia and the ensuing war will surely be a matter of controversial interpretation. The strength of this book lies in its rich detail and the author's social democratic viewpoint. Accounts of miners' strikes and their brutal repression in Labin (Croatia) and Trepca (Kosovo) are exemplary of the regime's loss of legitimacy. Magas's emphasis on the "watershed" of the 1981 Kosovo insurgency and the "strategy of destabilizing" the federation undertaken by Serbia's Milosevic are consistent with the opinion of many. However, less satisfactory are Magas's relative neglect of republics other than Serbia and the episodic quality of chapters written over more than a decade. This upper-level book will be of greatest value to other scholars and to those already familiar with the area. Recommended for academic libraries. See also Misha Glenny's The Fall of Yugoslavia and Mark Thompson's A Paper House, reviewed above.--Ed.
- Zachery T. Irwin, Pennsylvania State Univ.-Erie
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 390 pages
• Publisher: Verso; 1st edition (March 17, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 086091593X
• ISBN-13: 978-0860915935
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #253,864 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #25 in Books > History > Europe > Yugoslavia

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2 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A well-ordered summary of Balcanian break-up, November 23, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Destruction of Yugoslavia: Tracking the Break-Up 1980-1992 (Paperback)

The author has an objective glance to the disorderand causes of disorder occured in Yugoslavia.Hesuccessfully combines the causes to the uncomfor- table history of Yugoslavia.One thus can get idea of history of Yugoslavia either.Reading the book gives an idea of the total annihilation of many innocence in "old" Yugoslavia...