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Summary:
Throughout history, the Balkans have been a crossroads, a zone of endless military, cultural, and economic mixing and clashing between Europe and Asia, Christianity and Islam, Catholicism and Orthodoxy. In this highly acclaimed short history, Mark Mazower sheds light on what has been called the tinderbox of Europe, whose troubles have ignited wider wars for hundreds of years. Focusing on events from the emergence of the nation-state onward, The Balkans reveals with piercing clarity the historical roots of current conflicts and gives a landmark reassessment of the region’s history, from the world wars and the Cold War to the collapse of communism, the disintegration of Yugoslavia, and the continuing search for stability in southeastern Europe.
Customer Reviews:
Average Customer Rating:
Learn about all that "darn foolish business in the Balkans"
Customer Rating:
For someone who's quite interested in the Balkans, I've started but failed to finish a distressing number of books on the topic. I though the problem is that the topic is too large for one book until I found Mark Mazower's The Balkans: A Concise History. In less than 250 pages Mazower covers not just the basics but the major issues as well. He also manages to upend a few long-held but factually unsupported beliefs.
The outline is simple, first cover the land and the people, then life under the Ottoman Empire, then the struggles for "independence" (definitely a relative term in this instance) and finally the events of the 20th century. By the end I understood just how empty the concept of nationalism truly was in the Balkans in the 19th century, the roles of the Greek Orthodox Churches, the Austrian Empire and Russia, and the allure that fascism held for these newly emergent nations in the 1930s. That's a lot for 250 pages. That Mazower also manages to take on the myths of the "violent" Balkans and how swell it was to be a non-Muslim in the Ottoman Empire is truly impressive.
Mazower isn't doing narrative history here. His focus is on themes so the events aren't related in a straightforward chronology. I found it easy enough to follow but if you prefer chronology to themes this book might not work for you. For me this one's a winner and I'm definitely going back for more Modern Library Chronicles and more about the Balkans.
Very Good...
Customer Rating:
The Balkans: A Short History is a excellant book, not only on the balkans but on the muslim and orthodox christian relationship from the ottomans to Hitler and modern issues of religon in the area which are often overshadowed by the middle east. A very good book.
Boring and tedious
Customer Rating:
After reading some of the reviews here, I had low expectations for this book and so I thought I would not be disappointed. I was wrong. This is a very dry and boring read. I know little about Balkan history so I thought that I could learn a lot by reading this short book, but I had a hard time staying interested. The author is very knowledgeable about the Balkans but he lacks the ability to excite readers. Perhaps his mistake was in undertaking a book that attempts to tell a region's history in about 170 pages.
If you know little about the Balkans then I would recommend skipping this book. There is a lot of breadth but little depth. You have no frame of reference. For example, if you told a Martian about September 11th facts without an appropriate context, then she (actually I should say "it", since Martians have no gender) would probably not appreciate the significance of the event. I also thought the book was poorly organized. It is not chronological which is not necessarily a poor way of organizing but in this case it made the book even more tedious.
A great intro to the region
Customer Rating:
The Balkans is an all around solid book covering such a complex subject. Anywhere there is such a clash of religions is always bound to be a hotbed. And Mazower does a wonderful job in showing this hotbed, but in also dispelling the commonly accepted notion a region that enjoys and lives for violence. In fact he goes one further and shows the culture in the Balkans is, in fact, no more violent, and quite possibly less, than many a Christian culture and region.
Without having read much on the Balkans before I feel pretty confident in Mazower's scholarship. His grasp on the subject is very in depth. I wish the book could have been longer and deeper in many areas, but this is most certainly a great introduction to the region.
All in all, a great short book on a complex region. I would recommend to anyone looking for an introduction to the region or to brush up on the region.
4 stars.
Great introduction
Customer Rating:
A concise and elegant overview of Balkan history. Mazower shows not just the name 'Balkans' but also a lot of western perceptions on the Balkans are of recent date. On top of that, the book makes for pleasant afternoon reading.
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