The Balkans

Nationalism, War, and the Great Powers, 1804-2011

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$28.00 US
Penguin Adult HC/TR | Penguin Books
20 per carton
On sale Sep 25, 2012 | 9780142422564
Sales rights: US Only
A newly revised and updated edition of an award-winning BBC correspondent's magisterial history of the Balkan region

This unique and lively history of Balkan geopolitics since the early nineteenth century gives readers the essential historical background to more than one hundred years of events in this war-torn area. No other book covers the entire region, or offers such profound insights into the roots of Balkan violence, or explains so vividly the origins of modern Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, and Albania. Now updated to include the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, the capture of all indicted war criminals from the Yugoslav wars, and each state's quest for legitimacy in the European Union, The Balkans explores the often catastrophic relationship between the Balkans and the Great Powers, raising some disturbing questions about Western intervention.

"The first comprehensive history of the relationship in the modern era between the great powers and the various Balkan peoples." — San Francisco Chronicle

"A very considerable achievement . . . both heart-rending and beautifully judged." — David Rieff, Los Angeles Times

"Excellent . . . Glenny's audacious theme is that the Balkans are not a freestanding powder keg, but a 'powder trail' laid by the great powers themselves." — Dusko Doder, The New Republic

"Misha Glenny is the wisest and most reflective of all the Western journalists who have covered this part of Europe in the past two decades . . . this was an enormously ambitious book to undertake, but it is the book which Europe and America need." — Neal Ascherson, Observer (UK)

"His book covers an amazing amount of historical and geographical ground, ranging from early nineteenth-century Greece to Kosovo the day before yesterday. . . . This is popular history of the Norman Davies school, conceived on a large scale, highly readable, accessible, full of the music of the past. Its great strengths are evocation, fascinating detail and narrative sweep. A great achievement." — Timothy Garton Ash, Mail on Sunday (UK)

"Above all, the book is justified by the insights which add up to a convincing picture of the problems." — Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Sunday Times (London)

"An endeavor which deserves extraordinary admiration and as yet has no rival." — Jonathan Steele, Guardian (UK)

"Compelling . . . Glenny's book should be required reading for all those wishing to know what has gone wrong with the region." — Jonathan Eyal, Irish Times

About

A newly revised and updated edition of an award-winning BBC correspondent's magisterial history of the Balkan region

This unique and lively history of Balkan geopolitics since the early nineteenth century gives readers the essential historical background to more than one hundred years of events in this war-torn area. No other book covers the entire region, or offers such profound insights into the roots of Balkan violence, or explains so vividly the origins of modern Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, and Albania. Now updated to include the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, the capture of all indicted war criminals from the Yugoslav wars, and each state's quest for legitimacy in the European Union, The Balkans explores the often catastrophic relationship between the Balkans and the Great Powers, raising some disturbing questions about Western intervention.

Praise

"The first comprehensive history of the relationship in the modern era between the great powers and the various Balkan peoples." — San Francisco Chronicle

"A very considerable achievement . . . both heart-rending and beautifully judged." — David Rieff, Los Angeles Times

"Excellent . . . Glenny's audacious theme is that the Balkans are not a freestanding powder keg, but a 'powder trail' laid by the great powers themselves." — Dusko Doder, The New Republic

"Misha Glenny is the wisest and most reflective of all the Western journalists who have covered this part of Europe in the past two decades . . . this was an enormously ambitious book to undertake, but it is the book which Europe and America need." — Neal Ascherson, Observer (UK)

"His book covers an amazing amount of historical and geographical ground, ranging from early nineteenth-century Greece to Kosovo the day before yesterday. . . . This is popular history of the Norman Davies school, conceived on a large scale, highly readable, accessible, full of the music of the past. Its great strengths are evocation, fascinating detail and narrative sweep. A great achievement." — Timothy Garton Ash, Mail on Sunday (UK)

"Above all, the book is justified by the insights which add up to a convincing picture of the problems." — Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Sunday Times (London)

"An endeavor which deserves extraordinary admiration and as yet has no rival." — Jonathan Steele, Guardian (UK)

"Compelling . . . Glenny's book should be required reading for all those wishing to know what has gone wrong with the region." — Jonathan Eyal, Irish Times