Serbs and Croats: The Struggle in Yugoslavia [Paperback]

Alex N. Dragnich (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 7, 1993

The triumph of independent statehood after World War I became a tragedy for Yugoslavia seventy years later. Dragnich discusses the ideals and hopes of the South Slavs, their tortured attempt to create a workable political system, and the reasons behind the recent chaos and violence in the region. Index; maps.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This concise, lucid history throws a floodlight on the tragic drama unfolding in Yugoslavia. Dragnich, a political scientist and former officer in the American embassy in Belgrade, charges that the European powers, notably Germany and Austria, contributed to Yugoslavia's destruction in their rush to recognize an independent Slovenia and Croatia even before the substantive negotiations had taken place. Moreover, he writes, Western efforts to find a solution were undercut by an erroneous assumption that the Soviet-style federalist boundaries imposed by Yugoslav president Josip Tito were sacrosant. Tito, who purportedly hated Serbs, ruled through secret police and divided the country into six republics, leaving one-third of the Serbs in territories not their own. After the Nazi invasion in WW II, fascist Croatia was ruled by a terrorist organization, the Ustashi, which slaughtered more than half a million Serbs, Jews and Gypsies--a holocaust that has poisoned Serb-Croat relations, notes Dragnich. He skillfully unravels the longstanding differences that tear asunder South Slavs, Croats, Slovenes, Serbs and Bosnian Muslims in a land whose unification was initially conceived by 19th-century intellectuals aloof from the peasantry who made up the vast majority of the population.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

This concise, lucid history throws a floodlight on the tragic drama unfolding in Yugoslavia. Dragnich, a political scientist and former officer in the American embassy in Belgrade, charges that the European powers, notably Germany and Austria, contributed to Yugoslavia's destruction in their rush to recognize an independent Slovenia and Croatia even before the substantive negotiations had taken place. Moreover, he writes, Western efforts to find a solution were undercut by an erroneous assumption that the Soviet-style federalist boundaries imposed by Yugoslav president Josip Tito were sacrosant. Tito, who purportedly hated Serbs, ruled through secret police and divided the country into six republics, leaving one-third of the Serbs in territories not their own. After the Nazi invasion in WW II, fascist Croatia was ruled by a terrorist organization, the Ustashi, which slaughtered more than half a million Serbs, Jews and Gypsies--a holocaust that has poisoned Serb-Croat relations, notes Dragnich. He skillfully unravels the longstanding differences that tear asunder South Slavs, Croats, Slovenes, Serbs and Bosnian Muslims in a land whose unification was initially conceived by 19th-century intellectuals aloof from the peasantry who made up the vast majority of the population.
(Publishers Weekly )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (May 7, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0156806630
• ISBN-13: 978-0156806633
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.3 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,895,140 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Bible of Serbian propaganda, September 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Serbs and Croats: The Struggle in Yugoslavia (Paperback)

Far from providing insight into the complexities of Serbian-Croatian relations in historical context, this book simply rehashes and highlights all of the major claims of the propaganda espoused by Serbian nationalists (indeed, only in this context can King Alexander, who proclaimed a royal dictatorship in Yugoslavia, be referred to as a 'democrat'). The book should definitely not be read as an introduction to Yugoslav or even Serbian history. Rather, it should be read to gain insight into the way nationalists present the history of their nation with all of the 'bad parts' censored out, while all of the faults of their neighbors and rivals (in this case the Croats, Macedonians,Bosnian Muslims and Albanians to name a few) are emphasized repeatedly. Also, the book provides an example of how many Serbs view their own history, which is, to say the least, not quite accurate. Rather than knowing too much about their own history (as is often claimed in the West when speaking of the Balkan people), they, not just the Serbs, are just as misinformed and unaware of the historical actual facts as most people in, say, the United States--and Dragnich's book is a perfect portrayal of this skewed version of history. In conclusion, I believe that this book should be read together with historian C. Michael McAdams' "Croatia: Myth and Reality" as it similarly highlights many of the major points of Croatian historical propaganda while glossing over some of the ugly realities of history.

4.0 out of 5 stars A valuable account, September 14, 2011

By 

A. J. Cornish Bowden (Marseilles, France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Serbs and Croats: The Struggle in Yugoslavia (Paperback)

It is almost impossible to give a balanced account of the history of Yugoslavia, because it is a history confused by a great many myths. In particular, many western journalists talk of centuries of hatred dividing the Serbs and Croats, but that has to be nonsense, because for centuries before 1920 Serbs and Croats barely knew one another. Croatia was part of the Habsburg Empire, whereas Serbia, independent since 1815, had previously been part of the Ottoman Empire. Politically conscious Croats only started visiting Serbia in the 19th century, where they discovered a people quite similar to themselves, and speaking the same language. They and the Slovenes were not hostile to the idea of forming a larger unit with the Serbs, in part because both Slovenia and Croatia were much too small to resist encroachment by Italy and Austria, two neighbours that differed far more from them than Serbia did. In no sense, therefore, were they brought by force into what was initially called the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes.

Nonetheless, cracks appeared immediately, because the different components had very different visions of how the country should be, and only during Tito's lifetime did Yugoslavia present anything resembling a united front. Probably it was inevitable that it would fall apart, especially after Italy and Austria no longer seemed to be the threat to Slovenia and Croatia that they had been before the Second World War. Alex Dragnich expains all this very clearly, and one needs to be strongly biassed towards the Croat point of view to see the book as "Great Serbian Garbage!", as an earlier reviewer entitled a review. In the last chapters particularly, the author perhaps shows somewhat more sympathy to the Serbian point of view than a totally neutral observer would do, but this is hardly evident in most of the book.

The break-up of Yugoslavia had started when the book was written, but the worst was still to come: Macedonia and Montenegro were still part of Yugoslavia, and most of the horrors of Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo were still in the future.

16 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exellent overview of two clashing nations, February 2, 2000

By 

andja (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Serbs and Croats: The Struggle in Yugoslavia (Paperback)

The book is well written and it's title shows that the author is a learned person. The struggle which Serbs and Croats had to deal with was due to a contradicting regime and the coupeling of two nationalities that were not meant to live in the same borders. Dr.Dragnich clearly showed that the struggle between Serbs and Croats didn't just start in the early '90s, but as early as the signing of the Treaty of Versailles that merged the two together. The assasination of the Serbia king in spite, is enough to show that Croats never did want to live side by side with Serbs and that Tito's attempt at creating a country under the banner of " Brotherhood and Unity " failed on account that there was no brotherhood among Serbs and Croats, let alone unity. His book shows just how much one side gave and how much the other took mercilessly and in the end stabbed the other in the back. This painful lesson in Serbian history was been well documented by Dr.Dragnich, who deserves high praise for his endless work.

Bravo Dr. Alex!