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 Serbian Orthodox Fundamentals written by Christos Mylonas and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2003-01-01 with total page 315 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 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 Britain and the Balkans written by Carole Hodge and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2006-04-18 with total page 638 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An incisive analysis of Britain's decision-making role in the Yugoslavian conflict of the 1990s and in the formation of its successor states. Tracing the evolution of British policy from the onset of war in Croatia and Bosnia to the NATO action in Kosovo, and beyond, this major work examines the underlying factors governing that policy, and its role in shaping the international 'consensus'. British policy is examined through parliamentary proceedings in the House of Commons and Lords, as well as through evidence offered at select committees, reports from political and humanitarian agencies, private interviews with protagonists and media coverage, in relation to the situation on the ground and to policy development on the part of other leading world powers and institutions.
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)
Download or read book The People Press and Politics of Croatia written by Stjepan Malovic and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2001-05-30 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Malovic and Selnow examine the evolution of the press-government relationship in Croatia from the Tito era to the present. Their story is one of three interacting players: the Croatian government which until recently has sat firmly in control, the compliant press which seemed little motivated to change, and the largely quiescent public which demanded little from its press or its government. A provocative, often first-hand account that will be of interest to scholars and researchers involved with Balkan current affairs, journalism, and politics.
Download or read book The Conscience of Humankind written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-11-22 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The traumatic experiences of persecution and genocide have changed traditional views of literature. The discussion of historical truth versus aesthetic autonomy takes an unexpected turn when confronted with the experiences of the victims of the Holocaust, the Gulag Archipelago, the Cultural Revolution, Apartheid and other crimes against humanity. The question is whether - and, if so, to what extent - literary imagination may depart from historical truth. In general, the first reactions to traumatic historical experiences are autobiographical statements, written by witnesses of the events. However, the second and third generations, the sons and daughters of the victims as well as of the victimizers, tend to free themselves from this generic restriction and claim their own way of remembering the history of their parents and grandparents. They explore their own limits of representation, and feel free to use a variety of genres; they turn to either realist or postmodernist, ironic or grotesque modes of writing.
Download or read book The Past in Exile written by Birgit Bock-Luna and published by LIT Verlag Münster. This book was released on 2007 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this study of identity politics, memory and long-distance nationalism among Serbian migrants in California, the author examines the complicated ways in which visions of the past are used to form Diaspora subjects and make claims to the homeland in the present. Drawing on extended fieldwork in the San Francisco Bay Area community, she shows how the Yugoslav wars generated a revaluation Serbian history and personal life stories, resulting in the strengthening of ethnic identity. Nevertheless, strategies for dealing with rupture and change also included contestation of exile nationalism.
Download or read book Constructing South East Europe written by Dimitar Bechev and published by Springer. This book was released on 2011-03-15 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Regional cooperation has become a distinctive feature of the Balkans, an area known for its turbulent politics. Exploring the origins and dynamics of this change, this book highlights the transformative power of the EU and other international actors.
Download or read book Genocide after Emotion written by Stjepan Mestrovic and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The failure to adequately respond on the part of the major Western superpowers to the atrocities in the Balkans constitutes a major moral and political scandal. In Genocide after Emotion Mestrovic and the contributors thoroughly interrogate the war, its media coverage and response in the West. The result is alarming, both for the progress of the war and for the condition of our society today: the authors argue that the West is suffering from a "postemotional" condition - we are beyond caring about anything anymore.
Download or read book Screening Bosnia written by Stephen Harper and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2017-03-09 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Bosnian war of 1992-1995 was one of the most brutal conflicts to have erupted since the end of the Second World War. But although the war occurred in 'Europe's backyard' and received significant media coverage in the West, relatively little scholarly attention has been devoted to cultural representations of the conflict. Stephen Harper analyses how the war has been depicted in global cinema and television over the past quarter of a century. Focusing on the representation of some of the war's major themes, including humanitarian intervention, the roles of NATO and the UN, genocide, rape and ethnic cleansing, Harper explores the role of popular media culture in reflecting, reinforcing -- and sometimes contesting -- nationalist ideologies.
Download or read book Yugoslavian Inferno written by Paul Mojzes and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-10-06 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After the fall of communism in Eastern Europe, no-one was prepared for the violent dissolution of Yugoslavia. Suddenly old terms like chetnik and ustasha found new currency, and a new term surfaced – 'ethnic cleansing' – with its sickening echo of 'final solution'. The upsurge of nationalist sentiment in Eastern Europe raises the question whether the wars in the former Yugoslavia are harbingers of things to come. Will the racist idea of the ethnically pure state crush the humanist ideal of the multicultural society? Yugoslavian Inferno provides a rich analysis of the complex issues that brought about the demise of Yugoslavia and the ensuing fratricidal warfare. It pays particular attention to the role of religion in fanning the flames of interethnic hatred and is written by a scholar uniquely placed to write it. A Yugoslavian-American with roots in both Croatia and Serbia, whose religious tradition is Protestant, rather than Catholic, Orthodox, or Muslim, Paul Mojzes is an internationally recognized authority on religion in Eastern Europe. Based on travels in the region, interviews with politicians, scholars, and religious leaders, as well as news accounts and monographs in generally inaccessible languages, and formulated after a lifetime of scholarly achievement, Yugoslavian Inferno presents insights that only a native can provide and the critical objectivity that only an outsider can offer.
Download or read book Serbia in the Shadow of Milosevic written by Janine N. Clark and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2008-09-30 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the regime of Slobodan Milosevic was spectacularly overthrown on 5 October 2000, little has been written about subsequent political developments in Serbia. The perception of Milosevic as a criminal leader who plunged the former Yugoslavia into bloodshed and used violence to achieve his aims is not widely disputed among Western observers. However, to what extent is this view of Milosevic shared by people in Serbia? Here Janine Clark offers insights into and an understanding of this troubled country. She argues that many Serbs do not regard Milosevic as a criminal leader but rather as a 'bad' leader whose greatest crimes were against his own people. This has important implications for how Serbia deals with its past and for reconciliation and peace-building in the former Yugoslavia.
Download or read book The Post Communist Era written by B. Fowkes and published by Springer. This book was released on 1999-09-17 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History did not come to an end with the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe. This book tells the story of what followed during the 1990s. Political and national conflict, social and cultural change and the economic challenge of the transition to the market are all given their due weight. The comparative approach is combined with a detailed treatment of individual countries in alternating chapters. The distinction is made here between East Central Europe, where the author's conclusions are largely optimistic, and the Balkans, where uncertainty still prevails.
Download or read book Yugoslavia and Its Historians written by Norman M. Naimark and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2003-02-19 with total page 449 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most of what has been written about the recent history of Yugoslavia and the fierce wars that have plagued that country has been produced by journalists, political analysts, diplomats, human rights organization, the United Nations, and other government and intergovernmental organizations. Professional historians of Yugoslavia, however, have been strangely silent about the wars and the breakup of the country. This book is an effort to end that silence. The goal of this volume is to bring together insights from a distinguished group of American and European scholars of Yugoslavia to add depth to our historical understanding of that country’s recent struggles. The first part of the volume examines the ways in which images of the Yugoslav past have shaped current understandings of the region. The second part deals more directly with the events of the recent past and also looks forward to some of the problems and future prospects for Yugoslavia’s successor states.
