Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History (Paperback)

by Robert D. Kaplan (Author) "The past in Zagreb was underfoot: a soft, thick carpet of leaves, soggy from rain, that my feet sank in and out of, confusing with..." (more)
Key Phrases: crowd symbol, painted monasteries, grey falcon, Athenee Palace, Dame Rebecca, Eastern Europe (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
From the assassination that triggered World War I to the ethnic warfare now sweeping Serbia, Bosnia, and Croatia, the Balkans have been the crucible of the twentieth century, the place where terrorism and genocide first became tools of policy.

This enthralling and often chilling political travelogue fully deciphers the Balkans' ancient passions and intractable hatreds for outsiders. For as Kaplan travels among the vibrantly-adorned churches and soul-destroying slums of the former Yugoslavia, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece, he allows us to see the region's history as a time warp in which Slobodan Milosevic becomes the reincarnation of a fourteenth-century Serbian martyr; Nicolae Ceaucescu is called "Drac," or "the Devil"; and the one-time Soviet Union turns out to be a continuation of the Ottoman Empire.

From Publishers Weekly
Journalist Kaplan's vivid, impressionistic travelogue illuminates the Balkan nations' ethnic clashes and near-anarchic politics.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (March 15, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679749810
• ISBN-13: 978-0679749813
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (121 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #340,082 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not to be taken seriously, February 29, 2000

By	Edward Bosnar (Zagreb, Croatia) - See all my reviews

Kaplan's book is very is extremely well-written, and easy to read. It's also easy to get drawn into the author's narrative and take everything he says as given. However, Kaplan is not as well-informed on his subject (basically the entire Balkan peninsula) as he thinks he is. With the exception of Greece, where he spent a lot of time, and perhaps Bulgaria, he doesn't know a whole lot about the region and fills in the gaps in his knowledge with stereotypes drawn from other authors or by transposing the opinions a few people he talked to onto entire populations--often giving distorted impressions of e.g. the Serbs, Croats or Romanians. Nothing is more indicative of Kaplan's essentially unscholarly approach to such a complex topic than the reading materials he says he used to prepare himself for his journeys: for Yugoslavia he depends on Rebecca West's pre-World War II travelogue "Black Lamb and the Grey Falcon," a biased book itself, and based on her rather short (3-4 week) sojourn in Yugoslavia; even more troubling is his use of Bram Stoker's "Dracula" as a guide for Romania. Stoker was never in Romania (or rather Transylvania) nor did he ever intend his book to be taken as an accurate view of southeastern Europe; he was simply trying to provide some atmosphere for his novel, and his portrayal of Transylvania draws heavily on Victorian-era prejudices about the Balkans as an eerie and savage place. Yet Kaplan repeatedly cites Stoker as though he is a legitimate authority on Romania. This is, to say the least, irresponsible. As other reviewers on this page noted, the most disturbing thing is that this book's popularity ensured that it helped formulate opinions among broad sections of the public, including policy-makers.

42 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars former UN peacekeeper in Bosnia, April 7, 2002

By	Paul (RI) - See all my reviews

All the reviews either love this book or hate it. Why? It tells the story of a Western in this nuthouse we call Bosnia-Hercegovina during the "troubles".

It is an excellent book. Period. Does it tell the full story? Is it 100 percent fair to Serbs, Croats, Muslims, Vojvodians, Kosovars, Macedonians and Slovenes? How can it be. A war is a complex event. Remember that all, that is ALL the UN peacekeepers such as myself all thought each side was as bad as the next. Yes Serbs could be brutal, Croats mean, Moslems retaliatory.........the list goes on. But in terms of a perspective of what went on before this mans eyes? I believe it 100percent because I saw the same thing.

38 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent report on tradition and Balkan-style politics., July 9, 1999

By	[e-mail] Alexis Xydias (Buenos Aires, Argentina) - See all my reviews

"Balkan Ghosts" is politics, it is history, it is a travel guide. A beautiful descriptive prose, with no ambition for political analysis. Robert Kaplan brings out the typical character in every Balkan nation and society, and writes about the things that innocently clung to the back of his western-world mind and eyes, while travelling through the region. Through his encounters and visions, he manages to show much irony, yet in a respectful manner; it is the freshness and simplicity in his young view that allow an incisive report on old tradition. Kaplan visited tha farther corners of Romania, where Romanians do not go, and he tells about the Jews in Salonika, something Greeks do not talk about. A book that could have only been written by someone who knew the people, and lived by their sides. The result is an excellent journey through fascinating stories, about an exciting part of the world. A must-read for everyone who's been in the Balkans, wants to go, or seeks to understand the developments that took place during the 90's.