Download or read book Habits of the Balkan Heart written by Stjepan Gabriel Meštrović and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Almost as soon as Communism fell in Eastern Europe in 1989, Western politicians and intellectuals concluded that the West had "won" the Cold War and that liberal democracy had triumphed over authoritarianism in the world. Euphoria spread with the expectation of a New World Order. Within months, the giddy optimism began to fade, especially in the face of what soon became a brutal war in former Yugoslavia. Why did Serbia choose to replicate many of Germany's methods and aims from World Wars I and II, including ethnic cleansing (read "genocide") and a campaign to establish a Greater Serbia? Sociologist Stjepan Mestrovic, writing with Slaven Letica and Miroslav Goreta, argues that the social and political character of the Dinaric herdsmen--which dominates Serbian culture and politics, even though it is found in all Balkan nations--accounts for the form Communism took there, the fall of Communism, and the savagery and brutality of the post-Communist war. With carefully reasoned analysis, the authors show how sociological theories of social character--propounded by such thinkers as de Tocqueville, Veblen, and Bellah--can shed light on the conflicts in the Balkans, which, according to conventional wisdom, were not supposed to occur when Communism fell. They demonstrate that ancient, traditional ethnic, social, and nationalistic tendencies--"habits of the heart"--of the various people of the Balkans have taken precedence over pressures for democracy in the political and cultural vacuum left by the end of Communism in the region. Unfortunately, the difficulties in the Balkans will persist for a long time to come, and similar conflicts could break out in the former Soviet Union. This thought-provoking book has much new to say about the causes of such ethnic and class conflicts in the region, and the feasibility of policies for dealing with these sores. If democracy is to be achieved in post-Communist East Europe, the authors argue, it must be based on the "good" habits of the heart that coexist there with "bad" or authoritarian social character.
Download or read book Creating the Other written by Nancy M. Wingfield and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2003 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The historic myths of a people/nation usually play an important role in the creation and consolidation of the basic concepts from which the self-image of that nation derives. These concepts include not only images of the nation itself, but also images of other peoples. Although the construction of ethnic stereotypes during the "long" nineteenth century initially had other functions than simply the homogenization of the particular culture and the exclusion of "others" from the public sphere, the evaluation of peoples according to criteria that included "level of civilization" yielded "rankings" of ethnic groups within the Habsburg Monarchy. That provided the basis for later, more divisive ethnic characterizations of exclusive nationalism, as addressed in this volume that examines the roots and results of ethnic, nationalist, and racial conflict in the region from a variety of historical and theoretical perspectives.
Download or read book Balkan Genocides written by Paul Mojzes and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2011-10-16 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the twentieth century, the Balkan Peninsula was affected by three major waves of genocides and ethnic cleansings, some of which are still being denied today. In Balkan Genocides Paul Mojzes provides a balanced and detailed account of these events, placing them in their proper historical context and debunking the common misrepresentations and misunderstandings of the genocides themselves. A native of Yugoslavia, Mojzes offers new insights into the Balkan genocides, including a look at the unique role of ethnoreligiosity in these horrific events and a characterization of the first and second Balkan wars as mutual genocides. Mojzes also looks to the region's future, discussing the ongoing trials at the International Criminal Tribunal in Yugoslavia and the prospects for dealing with the lingering issues between Balkan nations and different religions. Balkan Genocides attempts to end the vicious cycle of revenge which has fueled such horrors in the past century by analyzing the terrible events and how they came to pass.
Download or read book Balkan holocausts written by David Bruce MacDonald and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 2013-07-19 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This electronic version has been made available under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) open access license. Comparing and contrasting propaganda in Serbia and Croatia from 1986 to 1999, this book analyses each group's contemporary interpretations of history and current events. It offers a detailed discussion of Holocaust imagery and the history of victim-centred writing in nationalist theory, including the links between the comparative genocide debate, the so-called Holocaust industry, and Serbian and Croatian nationalism. There is a detailed analysis of Serbian and Croatian propaganda over the Internet, detailing how and why the Internet war was as important as the ground wars in Kosovo, Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina, and a theme-by-theme analysis of Serbian and Croatian propaganda, using contemporary media sources, novels, academic works and journals.
Download or read book Identity in a Post communist Balkan State written by Douglas Saltmarshe and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-12 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title was first published in 2001. In seeking to better understand post-communist identity change, this book presents an analysis based on the study of everyday life in two villages in northern Albania. The author describes the villages from the perspective of community, economic activity and relations with the state. The book applies theories relating identity and civil society to the social, economic and political realities associated with post-communist transformation. By describing village life in northern Albania at the close of the 20th century, it aims to complement the anthropoligical work undertaken by Edith Durham in the early 1900s and by Margaret Hasluck in the 1930s.
Download or read book Narrating Victimhood written by Michaela Schäuble and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2014-04-30 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mythologies and narratives of victimization pervade contemporary Croatia, set against the backdrop of militarized notions of masculinity and the political mobilization of religion and nationhood. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork in rural Dalmatia in the Croatian-Bosnian border region, this book provides a unique account of the politics of ambiguous Europeanness from the perspective of those living at Europe's margins. Examining phenomena such as Marian apparitions, a historic knights tournament, the symbolic re-signification of a massacre site, and the desolate social situation of Croatian war veterans, Narrating Victimhood traces the complex mechanisms of political radicalization in a post-war scenario. This book provides a new perspective for understanding the ongoing processes of transformation in Southeastern Europe and the Balkans.
Download or read book The Balkans written by D. Hupchick and published by Springer. This book was released on 2002-01-11 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The tragedies of Bosnia and Kosovo are often explained away as the unchangeable legacy of 'centuries-old hatreds'. In this richly detailed, expertly balanced chronicle of the Balkans across fifteen centuries, Hupchick sets a complicated record straight. Organized around the three great civilizations of the region - Western European, Orthodox Christian and Muslim - this is a much-needed guide to the political, social, cultural and religious threads of Balkan history, with a clear, convincing account of the reasons for nationalist violence and terror.
Download or read book Ethnic Cleansing in the Balkans written by Cathie Carmichael and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2003-08-27 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ethnic Cleansing in the Balkans looks at the phenomenon of ethnic cleansing in the Balkans over the last two hundred years. It argues that the events that occurred during this time can be demystified, that the South East of Europe was not destined to become violent and that constructions of the Balkans as endemically violent misses a important political point and historical point. Carmichael provides an account of ethnic cleansing in the Balkans as a single historical phenomenon and brings together a vast array of primary and secondary sources to produce a concise and accessible argument. This book will be of interest to students and researchers of European studies, history and comparative politics.
Download or read book The Balkans written by Glenn Myers and published by GlennMyers.info. This book was released on 2009 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Crises In The Balkans written by Constantine P Danopoulos and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-03-07 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Written from the perspectives of regional and international participants, this book explores the causes and consequences of chronic conflicts in the Balkans. Assessing the likelihood of a region-wide conflagration, the contributors examine the ongoing carnage in Bosnia, the looming crisis over Kosovo, the dispute between Greece and Macedonia over t
Download or read book Serbian Orthodox Fundamentals written by Christos Mylonas and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2003-05-01 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a comprehensive exposition of the interaction of a national (the Serbian people) and a religiou (the Orthodox Christian faith) content, in the formation of a distinctive national identity and a mode of being. Its interdisciplinary approach, drawing on sociology, social anthropology, theology, political theory, Balkan historiography, and Serbian folklore, is deployed to provide a powerful and original analysis of how Serbian Orthodoxy has resulted in the sacralisation of the Serbian nation by framing the parameters of its existence. Addresses the following questions: what 'makes' a Serb? Are meaningful assumptions possible by introducing Serbian Orthodoxy as the primal point of reference? Why does religion appear to have an especially strong appeal?
Download or read book Imagining the Balkans written by Maria Todorova and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-04-15 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "If the Balkans hadn't existed, they would have been invented" was the verdict of Count Hermann Keyserling in his famous 1928 publication, Europe. Over ten years ago, Maria Todorova traced the relationship between the reality and the invention. Based on a rich selection of travelogues, diplomatic accounts, academic surveys, journalism, and belles-lettres in many languages, Imagining the Balkans explored the ontology of the Balkans from the sixteenth century to the present day, uncovering the ways in which an insidious intellectual tradition was constructed, became mythologized, and is still being transmitted as discourse. Maria Todorova, who was raised in the Balkans, is in a unique position to bring both scholarship and sympathy to her subject, and in a new afterword she reflects on recent developments in the study of the Balkans and political developments on the ground since the publication of Imagining the Balkans. The afterword explores the controversy over Todorova's coining of the term Balkanism. With this work, Todorova offers a timely, updated, accessible study of how an innocent geographic appellation was transformed into one of the most powerful and widespread pejorative designations in modern history.
Download or read book Imagining the Balkans written by Marii͡a Nikolaeva Todorova and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1997 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Starting in the 18th and 19th centuries and continuing up to the present, Imagining the Balkans covers the Balkan's most formative years.
Download or read book Britain and the Balkans written by Carole Hodge and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-04-18 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the evolution of British policy in former Yugoslavia, from the onset of war in Croatia and Bosnia to the NATO action in Kosovo and beyond, examining the underlying factors which have governed Britain's Balkans policy.
Download or read book Serbian Dreambook written by Marko Živković and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2011-04-29 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The central role that the regime of Slobodan Milošević played in the bloody dissolution of Yugoslavia is well known, but Marko Živković explores another side of this time period: the stories people in Serbia were telling themselves (and others) about themselves. Živković traces the recurring themes, scripts, and narratives that permeated public discourse in Milošević's Serbia, as Serbs described themselves as Gypsies or Jews, violent highlanders or peaceful lowlanders, and invoked their own mythologized defeat at the Battle of Kosovo. The author investigates national narratives, the use of tradition for political purposes, and local idioms, paying special attention to the often bizarre and outlandish tropes people employed to make sense of their social reality. He suggests that the enchantments of political life under Milošević may be fruitfully seen as a dreambook of Serbian national imaginary.
Download or read book From Yugoslavia to the Western Balkans written by Robert Hayden and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2012-10-12 with total page 410 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reflecting more than two decades of research on Yugoslavia’s collapse and based primarily on sources from the region itself, this book consistently challenges commonly-held beliefs about the Balkans wars, and about European integration, international law, human rights, and politics in multi-national societies.
Download or read book Cinema of Flames written by Dina Iordanova and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2019-07-25 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First study of cinema, media and the Balkan wars; Wide-ranging view of politics and culture of the region; The break-up of Yugoslavia triggered a truly international film-making project. Underground, Ulysses' Gaze, Before the Rain, Pretty Village, Pretty Flame and Welcome to Sarajevo were amongst a host of films created as the conflicts in the region unravelled. These conflicts restored the Balkans as a centrepiece of Western imagery and the media (especially cinema) assumed a leading but ambiguous role in defining it for global consumption through a narrow range of selectively defined images. Simultaneously, a lot of the high-quality cinematic and television work made in the region (much of it discussed in this book) remains relatively unknown. Cinema of Flames attempts to go deeper than the imagery and address some of the general concerns of the cross-cultural representation and self-representation of the Balkans: narrative strategies within the context of Balkan exclusion from the European cultural sphere, the cosmopolitan image of Sarejevo, diaspora, and the representations of villains, victims, women, and ethnic minorities, all considered in the general context of Balkan cinema. 'encyclopaedic in scope and brilliance, making excellent use of the scholarly literature whilst interweaving analysis of films and other mass media. The book will be a superb addition to the literatures on Bosnia and Yugoslavia. It will also serve as a standard reference on Balkans film.' Robert Hayden (University of Pittsburgh)
