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Milosevic: A Biography (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Slobodan Milosevic arrived in Serbia just over four months after the Wehrmacht, on 20 August 1941..." (more)
Key Phrases: Bosnian Serbs, Ivan Stambolic, United States (more...)

3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Drawing on pithy interviews with key players, LeBor (Hitler's Secret Bankers), who covered the Yugoslav wars for the Independent and the London Times, traces Milosevic's rise from a provincial childhood to leader of the Serbian Communist Party and then the Serbian presidency. LeBor absorbingly details Milosevic's self-serving strategizing in the independence movements in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia; his manipulation of Serb nationalist fervor; and his shadowy network of agents and gangsters. Firsthand interviews with Milosevic's wife and collaborator, Mira Markovic, allow LeBor to infuse his account of the Milosevic-Markovic "personal para-state" with insights into the couple's oddly contradictory ideological stances. He depicts their insular family life with obvious distaste for their seeming indifference to the tragic events around them. LeBor presents the West's attempts to abate war in the region as dynamic, if at times misguided; following his account of the peace accords negotiated at Dayton, Ohio, where Milosevic was an honored guest, he soberly remarks that between "statesman or war criminal," finally, "much of the difference, it seems, is in the eye of the beholder." Milosevic's involvement in ethnic cleansing emerges even more explicitly in the endgame of his rule, as Serbia battles the Kosovo Liberation Army. An afterword delivers further proof of Milosevic's guilt from his ongoing trial for genocide at the Hague. This disciplined, dispassionate portrait focuses on the actions of "an autocrat motivated by power." It does not attempt psychological speculation or a more theorized portrait. Highly readable, yet savvy about regionally specific realpolitik, this political biography will greatly enhance the lay reader's understanding of recent events in Yugoslavia. Illus. not seen by PW; maps.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

What manner of man is Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian leader during Yugoslavia's bloody disintegration who is currently on trial for war crimes? Not a man of principle or warmth, according to LeBor's biography, but rather one dedicated to the attainment and retention of political power. After Milosevic rigged one election too many, a popular uprising ejected him from office in 2000, a vertiginous fall from the summit for the career communist turned Serb nationalist. Outside of Milosevic's determination to keep Kosovo, however, LeBor discovers much information that casts Milosevic as an exploiter rather than a champion of Serb nationalism. His thorough research indicates how Milosevic would as easily stiff his Serbian clients doing the fighting and ethnic cleansing as toss back a brandy. Embroidering these deadly political machinations with Milosevic's domestic life, an uxorious one centered on his wife, LeBor depicts a consummate opportunist who succeeded, for a while, in riding high while a country disintegrated and an economy descended into gangsterism. A vital addition to the literature on Yogoslavia's catastrophic end. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

Hardcover: 448 pages
Publisher: Yale University Press (March 11, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0300103174
ISBN-13: 978-0300103175
Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,605,577 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Inside This Book (learn more)

First Sentence:
Slobodan Milosevic arrived in Serbia just over four months after the Wehrmacht, on 20 August 1941. Read the first page

Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Bosnian Serbs, Ivan Stambolic, United States, Dusan Mitevic, Mira Markovic, Eighth Session, Slobodan Milosevic, Radovan Karadzic, General Mladic, Lord Owen, Banja Luka, Draza Markovic, Kosovo Serbs, New York, Bosnian Croat, Kosovo Albanian, Richard Holbrooke, Greater Serbia, Mihailo Crnobrnja, Novi Sad, Second World War, Vuk Draskovic, Borka Vucic, Dobrica Cosic, Milan Kucan

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Citations (learn more)

This book cites 39 books:

The Death of Yugoslavia (BBC) by Allan Little on 7 pages
Balkan Odyssey (Harvest Book) by David Owen on 5 pages
Crowds and Power by Elias Canetti on 4 pages
A Heart Turned East: Among the Muslims of Europe and America by Adam Lebor in Front Matter, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
Heart Turned East by Adam LeBor in Front Matter, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)

See all 39 books this book cites

5 books cite this book:

The Balkans and the West: Constructing the European Other, 1945-2003 by Andrew Hammond on page 154, and Back Matter
Thinking about Yugoslavia: Scholarly Debates about the Yugoslav Breakup and the Wars in Bosnia and Kosovo by Sabrina P. Ramet on page 180, and page 184
Judgement Day: The Trial of Slobodan Milosevic by Chris Stephen in Back Matter
Rethinking the Nature of War (Cass Contemporary Security Studies) by I. Duyvesteyn on page 174
Conflict in Southeastern Europe at the End of the Twentieth Century: A 'Scholars' Initiative' Assesses Some of the Controversies (Nations and Nationalism of Eastern Europe and the Former USSR) by Emmert&Ingrao on page 35

Books on Related Topics (learn more)

Hearts Grown Brutal by Roger Cohen

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Yugoslavia by Laura Silber

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Dubious Mandate by Phillip Corwin

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5.0 out of 5 stars A deep understanding of the past and future, June 6, 2004

By	Christian Jacobsen (Seattle and Budapest) - See all my reviews

The disintegration of Yugoslavia into a horrible series of wars and battles that pitted formerly peaceful neighbors against each other is a very important part of modern European history. It tested the relationship between America and Europe on all levels. And it was where the strengths and weaknesses of the NATO alliance have been most clearly illustrated.

Getting your head around this incredibly complex situation can only be done by examining the man who methodically tore a once-proud country and people to shreds: Slobodan Milosevic.

How was this drab functionary able to completely destroy a prosperous nation? How was he able to create civil wars between villagers that had lived peacefully side by side for generations? Why was he supported and even admired by the Western politicians while simultaneously overseeing some of the worst atrocities against humans since WWII?

Through interviews with all of the key figures that surrounded Milosevic - including his wife Mira Markovic! - Adam LeBor paints a vivid picture of the man at the center of this terrible tragedy.

As a reporter in the Balkans during the wars, Mr. LeBor saw first hand the results of Milosevic's terrible reign. As a proven history writer, he has managed to take his first hand experiences and meld them with historical perspective, so we wind up with an incredibly sharp picture of the key events themselves, but framed within an understanding of the event in the overall historical narrative.

This book is the only work I have seen that makes the Balkans understandable to the common Westerner, and is important for that very reason. However, it also resonates particularly clearly in the world we live in post 9/11, where we again are partnered with NATO and involved in wars in foreign lands with tribal people in a land and culture that are driven by a web of beliefs and interconnectedness that we do not understand.

Read this book to understand what the world lost when Yugoslavia disintegrated, and how it happened. And read this book to gain an understanding and insight into our current conflicts. And finally, read this book for Mr. LeBor's skill at writing. You will not be disappointed.

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1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars "I never met Slobodan Milosevic, although I wrote a biography of him.", December 5, 2007

By	Richard Murray (Washington State) - See all my reviews

The author's admission to the press that "I never met Slobodan Milosevic, although I wrote a biography of him" sums up the credibility of this book.

LeBor misleads readers throughout his book. When describing Milosevic's ascent to power (pg. 79-84) he says that a crowd of unruly Serbs attacked a predominantly Albanian police force in Kosovo Polje in 1987. LeBor claims that Milosevic took the crowd's side and said, "No one should dare to beat you again!" LeBor relies heavily on his version of events to advance his thesis that Milosevic incited Serbian nationalism in order to attain power.

The only problem is that LeBor's version of events is totally wrong. As the events unfolded in 1987 The New York Times reported that THE POLICE ATTACKED THE CROWD in a botched attempt to clear the area of demonstrators -- and that the crowd RETALIATED by throwing rocks at the police. LeBor's assertion that the police were attacked by the crowd is made even more laughable by the fact that the federal Yugoslav Interior Ministry scolded the policemen involved in the incident for their conduct. On top of getting the fact that the police attacked the crowd wrong, LeBor misquoted Milosevic whose actual words were "you will not be beaten" given in response to complaints from the crowd that the police were beating people.

This is all easy enough to verify because there's a videotape of the event. It was broadcast on TV when it happened in 1987, and it's a publicly accessible exhibit from Milosevic's trial at The Hague. I personally suspect that LeBor's 180 degree inversion of established fact and his misquotation of Milosevic's words was a deliberate attempt to mislead his readers, but even if it wasn't malicious it's still proof that LeBor's research was sloppy.

I'm not going to write a refutation of the entire book here; suffice it to say that the example I gave above is one of many that I could have used.

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