The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of the Balkans [Paperback]

Dennis P. Hupchick (Author), Harold E. Cox (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 031223970X | ISBN-13: 978-0312239701 | Publication Date: September 22, 2001

The dramatic, tumultuous, 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 Balkans 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Praise for A Concise Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe: . . . a useful text and library reference. Hupchick’s descriptions are lucid, and Cox’s cartography is clear and well-coordinated with the narrative . . . crucial publication on East Central Europe and the Balkans that can serve as a supplemental volume or stand alone as a short text.” —Nationalities Papers

“A valuable tool for the classroom and the general public.” —Multicultural Review

“A well organized, easy-to-use set of 50 maps . . . well-written . . . A welcome publication . . .” —Choice

“An admirable summary of the history of the area, tracing the complex ethnic and cultural interactions of the peoples of Eastern Europe. It also offers an excellent background for the understanding of the current problems experienced in the region. . . Recommended for collections of all types. . .” —Booklist

This atlas is an invaluable addition to public and academic libraries and is highly recommended.
-American Reference Books Annual

About the Author

Dennis P. Hupchick is an associate professor of history at Wilkes University, Pennsylvania, where he also directs the East European and Russian Studies Program. He is the author of Conflict and Chaos in Eastern Europe, Culture and History in Eastern Europe, co-author of The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of Eastern Europe, author of The Balkans, and The Bulgarians in the Seventeenth Century. He has edited a number of scholarly books and has authored numerous articles on Bulgarian and Balkan history. He is a past-president of the Bulgarian Studies Association and was a Fulbright Scholar to Bulgaria in 1989.

Harold E. Cox is professor and chair of the department of history at Wilkes University, Pennsylvania. He is the former editor of Pennsylvania Historyand has written extensively on the history of urban transportation and the development of inner cities in the nineteenth century. He has created historical maps for various publications since the early 1950s.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan (September 22, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 031223970X
• ISBN-13: 978-0312239701
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.4 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #435,430 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Honest attempt, weak result, September 8, 2002

By 

baboonsbookreview (Højbjerg, Denmark) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of the Balkans (Hardcover)

* * * 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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maps and brief overview that are easy to understand, November 17, 2007

By 

Roger Crowley "amateur historian" (San Diego, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of the Balkans (Paperback)

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.

5.0 out of 5 stars Map lover's book, December 30, 2011

By 

Reader_CEM (New York City) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Palgrave Concise Historical Atlas of the Balkans (Paperback)

If you are interested in the history of Eastern Europe and like maps, this is a great book. The readings are clear and easy to follow, and the maps easy to read. I found the history so well done, that I went on to read the Hopkirk's book on the history of the Balkans.