The Balkans - by Misha Glenny (Paperback)

About the Book

This unique history of Balkan geopolitics since the 19th century gives readers essential background to recent events in the war-torn area. It also explains the origins of the modern countries, from Serbia and Bosnia to Romania and Albania, and is studded with portraits of kings, politicians, and guerrillas. Maps.

Book Synopsis

A newly revised and updated edition of an award-winning BBC correspondent's magisterial history of the Balkan region

This unique and lively history of Balkan geopolitics since the early nineteenth century gives readers the essential historical background to more than one hundred years of events in this war-torn area. No other book covers the entire region, or offers such profound insights into the roots of Balkan violence, or explains so vividly the origins of modern Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, and Albania. Now updated to include the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, the capture of all indicted war criminals from the Yugoslav wars, and each state's quest for legitimacy in the European Union, The Balkans explores the often catastrophic relationship between the Balkans and the Great Powers, raising some disturbing questions about Western intervention.

Review Quotes

"The first comprehensive history of the relationship in the modern era between the great powers and the various Balkan peoples." -- San Francisco Chronicle

"A very considerable achievement . . . both heart-rending and beautifully judged." -- David Rieff, Los Angeles Times

"Excellent . . . Glenny's audacious theme is that the Balkans are not a freestanding powder keg, but a 'powder trail' laid by the great powers themselves." -- Dusko Doder, The New Republic

"Misha Glenny is the wisest and most reflective of all the Western journalists who have covered this part of Europe in the past two decades . . . this was an enormously ambitious book to undertake, but it is the book which Europe and America need." -- Neal Ascherson, Observer (UK)

"His book covers an amazing amount of historical and geographical ground, ranging from early nineteenth-century Greece to Kosovo the day before yesterday. . . . This is popular history of the Norman Davies school, conceived on a large scale, highly readable, accessible, full of the music of the past. Its great strengths are evocation, fascinating detail and narrative sweep. A great achievement." -- Timothy Garton Ash, Mail on Sunday (UK)

"Above all, the book is justified by the insights which add up to a convincing picture of the problems." -- Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, Sunday Times (London)

"An endeavor which deserves extraordinary admiration and as yet has no rival." -- Jonathan Steele, Guardian (UK)

"Compelling . . . Glenny's book should be required reading for all those wishing to know what has gone wrong with the region." -- Jonathan Eyal, Irish Times

About the Author

Misha Glenny was born in 1958 and educated at Bristol Universty and Charles University in Prague. His coverage of the fall of communism in 1989-1990 was widely acclaimed and led to the writing of his first book, The Rebirth of History. During the Yugoslav crisis of the early 1990s, he was the Central Europe correspondent for the BBC World Service. In 1993, he won a Sony Award for his coverage of Yugoslavia. Glenny's The Fall of Yugoslavia (1993) won the Overseas Press Club Award for Best Book on Foreign Affairs. His other books include McMafia: Journey through the Global Underworld and DarkMarket: Cyberthieves, Cybercops, and You.

He has written for most major news outlets in Europe, North America, Africa and Asia and has lectured around the world, most recently as a Visiting Professor at Columbia University.