Bosnia:short History

This book is essential for anyone to understand the present conflict...a splendid work of synthesis on a very complex subject, written with insight and sympathy: the best, indeed the only informed book on a history that has become both topical and tragic.--Sunday TelegraphBy far the best available guide to the fatal steps to catastrophe.... Thoughtful, lucid, and deeply informed.--New York Review of BooksAn extraordinary book--the best available in English on the background of the Bosnian war.--Warren Zimmermannformer U.S. ambassador to Yugoslavia, in the National InterestQuite simply one of the best books of historical scholarship written for a general audience in the last decade.--New York NewsdayAn acute, readable introduction to why and how racial history has been the bane of the Balkans and why it need not be.--Village Voice Literary SupplementA positive gem, the product of profound scholarship, deep reflection, and a decency of sentiment... There are few works of scholarship that I have read in recent decades that have impressed me as much as Noel Malcolm''s.--National ReviewA masterpiece. Few histories have made history. This one could yet do so.--Times of LondonA marvelous book, a work of great scholarship.--Margaret ThatcherA most impressive achievement...A firm and skillful guide to the general reader.--Times Literary SupplementWill be read as the definitive work for decades to come.--SpectatorThis updated edition of Noel Malcolm''s highly-acclaimed Bosnia: A Short History provides the reader with the most comprehensive narrative history of Bosnia in the English language. Malcolm examines the different religious and ethnic inhabitants of Bosnia, a land of vast cultural upheaval where the empires of Rome, Charlemagne, the Ottomans, and the Austro-Hungarians overlapped. Clarifying the various myths that have clouded the modern understanding of Bosnia''s past, Malcolm brings to light the true causes of the country''s destruction. This expanded edition of Bosnia includes a new epilogue by the author examining the failed Vance-Owen peace plan, the tenuous resolution of the Dayton Accords, and the efforts of the United Nations to keep the uneasy peace.What went wrong in the country where Christians and Muslims mingled and tolerated each other for over five centuries? It was a land with a vibrant political and cultural history, unlike any other in Europe, where great powers and religions-the empires of Rome, Charlemagne, the Ottomans; the faiths of Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Judaism, and Islam overlapped and combined. In this first English-language history of Bosnia, Noel Malcolm provides a narrative chronicle of the country from its beginnings to its tragic end. Clarifying the various myths that have clouded the modern understanding of Bosnia''s past, Malcolm brings to light the true causes of the country''s destruction: the political strategy of the Serbian leadership, the conflict between the city and the countryside, the fatal inaction and miscalculations of Western politicians. Putting the Bosnia war into perspective, this volume celebrates the complex history of a country whose past, as well as its future, has been all but erased. At last, here is the guide for the general reader seeking a comprehensive and accessible account of the war in the former Yugoslavia. Table of ContentsA Note on Names and Pronunciations Maps Introduction 1. Races, myths and origins: Bosnia to 1180 2. The medieval Bosnian state, 1180-1463 3. The Bosnian Church 4. War and the Ottoman system, 1463-1606 5. The Islamicization of Bosnia 6. Serbs and Vlachs 7. War and politics in Ottoman Bosnia, 1606-1815 8. Economic life, culture and society in Ottoman Bosnia, 1606-1815 9. The Jews and the Gypsies of Bosnia 10. Resistance and reform, 1815-1878 11. Bosnia under Austro-Hungarian rule, 1878-1914 12. War and the kingdom: Bosnia 1914-1941 13. Bosnia and the second world war, 1941-1945 14. Bosnia in Titoist Yugoslavia, 1945-1989 15. Bosnia and theMalcolm, Noel is the author of 'Bosnia:short History' with ISBN 9780814755204 and ISBN 0814755208.