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An incisive and revealing history of how Yugoslavia plunged into violence in the 1990s

Over the past two years, the entire world watched in horror as one of Europe's most stable countries plunged into an orgy of violence and bloodshed that has invoked comparisons to the Holocaust. Aside from empty threats and diplomatic hand wringing, the West has done little to stop the ethnic cleansing, the sieges, and the brutality that has characterized the conflict in the former Yugoslavia. Contrary to common wisdom, the hyper-violent disintegration of the former Yugoslavia is not simply and exclusively the product of inherent and irrational ethnic animosities and centuries of strife. In this engaging book, journalist Christopher Bennett traces the turning point to the 1987 struggle within the Serbian Communist party which was between adherents of a Serb nationalist ideology -embodied by Slobodan Milosevic- and the other Yugoslavs who clung to the vision of a multinational state. As soon as Milosevic gained the upper hand, he ruthlessly purged his rivals and launched a massive campaign of media indoctrination to stir up Serb nationalism. This new nationalism, which has repelled the world since 1991, is primarily Milosevic's creation and not merely the result of historical enmity. As a student at two different Yugoslav universities in the 1980's, Bennett witnessed firsthand many if the critical events which contributed to Yugoslavia's destruction. He renders an incisive and accessible history, covering the period from Tito's dictatorship to the present day.

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Library Journal Review

This is an absolutely excellent must-read study of the collapse of Yugoslavia. While it will not make Serb partisans happy, it overflows with fresh insight and clarity on each page. On a subject that has attracted so much excellent writing, this timely book is in the first rank. Journalist Bennett deftly avoids simple answers (e.g., the common myth, "What can you expect from centuries old hatreds"). The "Serb national psyche which has so revolted the world since 1991," he argues, is not the product of centuries but has been "deliberately manufactured and intensively cultivated by Serb elites and media." Bennett extends his analysis to the international community (for which he has few good words) and powerfully underscores the cascading impact of the war, whose beginnings he traces to the post-Tito 1980s. The most profound lesson Bennett teaches is that the war was not inevitable and that the first victim was the Yugoslav and the Titoist ideal‘and reality‘of brotherhood and unity. Highly recommended.‘H. Steck, Cortland Univ., N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Publishers Weekly Review

Drawing on sources written in English, Slovene and Serbo-Croat supplemented by interviews (Bennett, a British journalist, speaks both Slovene and Croat), this informative study describes how the Serbs, under the leadership of Slobodan Milosevic, disarmed Slovenian and Croatian forces in May 1990, leaving the territories they had protected virtually defenseless. Bennett criticizes the Serbian media for its willingness to generate nationalist hysteria-which Milosevic shaped into a pathological hatred for the non-Serbian population, as well as for other Serbs who refused to accept his vision of a Greater Serbia. Bennett calls ``unpardonable'' the refusal of the international community to protect innocent victims of the Serbian rampage in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but fails to make clear what he thinks should have been done. The greatest tragedy of all, in his view, is the demise of the Titoist ideal of brotherhood and unity that, until Yugoslavia's collapse, had kept the various ethnic and religious factions loosely allied for nearly 40 years. Prospects for a peaceful settlement in the foreseeable future are bleak, he says, as long as Milosevic remains in power. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

CHOICE Review

The breakup of Yugoslavia and the consequent war have produced a run of absolutely first-rate books. Bennett's slim work may be counted among the better of these. Those sympathetic to the Serbs, even while understanding the savagery that the Serbs have visited on their erstwhile neighbors, will not be pleased with Bennett's work. In his view, the responsibility for the tragedy does not lie in the "centuries of hatred" myths. Yugoslavia did not simply collapse once Tito and the Communist Party was removed: it was "systematically destroyed," and the nationalism that was the instrument was manufactured and cultivated by the Serbian media and by Milosevic. Bennett believes Milosevic is the villain and does not hesitate to compare him to Hitler and Stalin. He concedes that socioeconomic and structural features count, but these are the soil that permitted Milosevic and the media (to which he attributes a key role) to foment national hysteria and hatreds. In tracing the history of Yugoslavia, Bennett writes with a barely controlled moral and intellectual passion. He has long-standing personal and professional ties to the former Yugoslavia and brings a special feeling to his task. General; undergraduate through faculty. H. Steck SUNY College at Cortland

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Journalist Christopher Bennettwas in Ljubljana when Slovenia and Croatia declared independence in June 1991 and remained in the former Yugoslavia for the next 14 months. Since 1994, he has lectured in Yugoslav history at the University of London.