Bosnia: A Short History (Paperback)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

To explain the origins of the current conflict in Bosnia, Malcolm reaches back to Turkish occupation, Austro-Hungarian rule, both world wars and the era of Stalinist oppression under Toti. He contends that "ethnic cleansing" is not a by-product of the current war but a central element in the Serbian goal of creating homogeneous Serb enclaves that eventually will join together in a Greater Serbia. Malcolm condemns Western interference, singling out politicians and diplomats who attempt to suppress the war's symptoms instead of treating its causes. He argues persuasively that the United Nations-imposed arms embargo against Bosnia opened the way to that nation's destruction, and that the vaunted Vance-Owen peace plan was only slightly less disastrous. It led to a genuine Bosnian civil war, ruining the only effective barrier against the Serbs, the Croat-Muslim alliance. Political columnist for London's Daily Spectator, Malcolm has covered the Balkans for 15 years.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The collapse of former Yugoslavia and the ensuing war have shifted scholarly attention to its successor states. Malcolm's success consists in demonstrating why Bosnia-Hercegovina's distinctive history demands such an approach. The mix of elements include the region's geographic "remoteness" from other centers of power, its unusual Slav and non-Slav blend of population, and its status as an object of neighboring rivalry. The author cogently dispels the myths of forcible conversion to Islam by the Ottomans as well as the notion of a "fundamentalist threat" from an Islamic Bosnia. Although Malcolm is least comfortable in dealing with the segment of Bosnia's history as a part of Yugoslavia, he makes the case that its subsequent destruction was an object of "rational strategy" rather than religious hatred. Recommended for public and academic libraries.
Zachary T. Irwin, Pennsylvania State Univ.-Erie
Copyright 1994 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: 384 pages
• Publisher: Pan Publishing; 3rd edition (August 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330412442
• ISBN-13: 978-0330412445
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #390,789 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very accurate but with small inaccuracies and nuances, September 22, 2004

By	RM (London Colney, HE UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bosnia: A Short History (Paperback)

Malcolm does a pretty good job in covering almost 1000 years of Slav history in Bosnia. Most of his book looks at Bosnia during the Ottoman Empire and the reign of the Kotromanic dynasty. His narrative for the most part is very clear-sighted and does not allow anger or bitterness to take over, unlike many other historians who have written books on the Balkans (Philip Cohen springs to mind)

Saying that, however, there are certain subjects that he just doesn't cover in enough detail, particularly since they were very important parts of Bosnia's history. For example, he mentions the Jasenovac concentration camp in Croatia during WW2 in passing, reserving only one sentence on this subject, and completely fails to mention that thousands upon thousands of Serbs, Jews and others perished there.

His last chapter about the most recent Bosnian war I found to be too short and simplistic. He blames forces in Serbia for most of the mayhem wrought upon Bosnia, which is fair enough, but does not even hint at the fact that Bosniacs and Croats also committed war crimes. While the Serbs were busy expelling and killing Bosniacs from their area of control, the Croats were also doing the same in Herzegovina and central Bosnia, culminating into a civil war between the Bosniacs and the Croats during 1992-1994. This side of Bosnia's tragedy is sadly neglected.

Ok, as the title describes, it is a SHORT history at the end of the day but it just seems to me as if he managed to cover the earlier parts of Bosnia's history very well but seems to slightly taper of at the end of the book. All in all, a good book which is certainly one of the more balanced books out there on Bosnia.

16 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Primer on Bosnian History, May 20, 2000

By	James Wink (Virginia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Bosnia: A Short History (Paperback)

Bosnia: A Short History is the historical primer for Bosnia. Yes, it does paint the Serbs in a negative light. And yes, there are much better book on the Bosnian War available: The Fall of Yugoslavia for example. Due to publication dates, the effects of the last five years of peacekeeping are not touched upon: for that Faking Democracy after Dayton is the best reference. However, this book give the single best history until the post World War II era. If you are about to deploy to the Balkans, reading of this book will give you a good historical background of the events leading up to 1989.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book I read on History of Bosnia, June 2, 2009

By	Almin Ramic - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Bosnia: A Short History (Paperback)

In his Book Malcom takes extra steps to show how flawed and one sided are each of there histories courently tought in Bosnian schools. Taking the research into libraries of ottoman, habsburg empires and further, he writes most objective piece. This is the book that all bosnian should read and it should be required reading in all history clases in bosnia.