Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History

Kaplan, Robert D.

ISBN 10: 0679749810 / ISBN 13: 9780679749813

Published by Vintage, NY, 1994

About this Item

Lightly read; diangonal creasing on corner of rear cover. No markings. Spine uncreased. 305 pp., 32 pp. b&w historical photos. Travel and political reportage by a foreign correspondent who predicted early on the civil war in the Balkans. Size: 8vo -- 8 in Tall. Seller Inventory # 010224

Bibliographic Details

Title: Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History

Publisher: Vintage, NY

Publication Date: 1994

Binding: Trade Paperback

Book Condition: Very Good

Edition: 3rd Printing.

About this title

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.

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.