Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History - Softcover

Kaplan, Robert D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0679749810 ISBN 13: 9780679749813

Publisher: Vintage, 1994

Synopsis

From the assassination that set off World War I to the ethnic warfare sweeping Bosnia and Croatia, the Balkans have been the crucible of the 20th century--the place where terrorism and genocide were first practiced as tools of policy. This enthralling political travelogue helps us understand that region's anguish. 16 pages of photos.

About this title

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 the Publisher:

"Powerfully argued...the most insightful and timely work on the Balkans to date."--The Boston Globe

"A road-map through the centuries-old ethnic hatreds and anti-Semitism that continue to erupt in Eastern Europe."--Abraham H. Foxman

"With remarkable clarity...Mr. Kaplan succeeds in presenting the everyday experience of different Balkan communities in a vivid and significant way. Balkan Ghosts offers the complexity, brutality, and beauty in traveling in both the past and present."--Seattle Times

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0679749810
• ISBN 13: 9780679749813
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368