Reading up on former Yugoslavia?

August 7, 2005 11:00 AM

Can anyone recommend any excellent books covering the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s?

The recommendation isn't for me, but for a colleague who saw the film "No Man's Land" recently and had his interest piqued. He was a kid during the breakup of Yugoslavia and has next to no recollection of the events. He's not interested in the many human interest type books which dominate the search results he's tried at amazon, but a decent and accessible history. Thanks in advance!

posted by jamesonandwater to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (12 answers total)

Perhaps not what you're asking for, but I'd definitely recommend Joe Sacco's "The Fixer" or "Safe area Gorazde". Combining journalism and comics – Sacco stayed several months in former Yugoslavia during the war – may sound impossible until you read him. He's good.
posted by Termite at 11:16 AM on August 7, 2005

I'm currently reading Peter Maass' "Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War." Well written, but mighty depressing. He's an American journalist. It goes into a lot of the whys and wherefores, though perhaps too anecdotally for your friend's purposes???? Oh, and he might not enjoy the book if he's a Serb.
posted by johngumbo at 11:32 AM on August 7, 2005

I apologise that this doesn't answer your question exactly, but I recommend, for a wider view, David Halberstam's "War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton and the Generals" which has an excellent section on the events of the Balkans but also gives a more far-reaching account of how US foreign policy has affected its involvement in that and various other conflicts. But it may not be what your friend really wants. Highly recommended anyway.
posted by keijo at 12:11 PM on August 7, 2005

The Balkans: Nationalism, War & the Great Powers, 1804-1999.

Sarajevo Daily: A City and Its Newspaper Under Siege. Extraordinary account of a the staff of a daily paper and its determination to continue publishing throughout the first two years of the Bosnian war. Published in 1995.
posted by soiled cowboy at 12:38 PM on August 7, 2005

Peacekeeper: The Road to Sarajevo gives Major-General Lewis MacKenzie's take of it from the UN side of things. The first nine chapters are an autobiography of the author, but chapters 10 to 30 are all related to the Yugoslav war.
posted by furtive at 1:57 PM on August 7, 2005

My wife ( a Ph.D. type) recommends 4 books:

the first 2 are journalist accounts of the war. The third is a forensic archeologist from her perspective, and the 4th is more of a political account.

Love thy Neighbor: A story of War, Peter Maas
Endgame: The betrayal & Fall of Srebrenica, David Rohde
The Stone Fields: An Epitaph for the Living, Courtney Angela Brkic
The Fall of Yugoslavia: The 3rd Blakan War, Misha Glenny

Hope that helps.
posted by wflanagan at 2:04 PM on August 7, 2005

Balkan Ghosts, Robert Kaplan
posted by lois1950 at 6:03 PM on August 7, 2005

Second for The Fall of Yugoslavia by Glenny. A detailed explanation of the main characters and genesis of the catastrophe. Demonstrates what went wrong and who was responsible.
posted by atchafalaya at 6:28 PM on August 7, 2005

Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation by Laura Silber and Allan Little.

I've had to use the book for two classes on genocide. It's exhaustive and objective. Written by two journalists. There's also a TV documentary by the same name.

I'd warn a little against Balkan Ghosts - Kaplan is famous for his theories on ancient ethnic hatreds as an explanation for war and other books may be more objective/provide alternate explanations or conjectures.
posted by loulou718 at 8:06 PM on August 7, 2005

balkan ghosts, kaplan - supposedly clinton read it and it made him hesitate before getting involved (kaplan is known for going out on a limb or two, but freely admits it when he's gone too far)
sarajevo daily
love thy neighbor

you can see my bias is pretty stark. i hugely dislike academic studies.
posted by raaka at 9:55 PM on August 7, 2005

I second loulou718's suggestions to the hilt. Go for Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation for a solid overview, and be wary of Balkan ghosts.

I personally had quite a few issues with Love Thy Neighbor (self-link) but it seems to be popular.
posted by Ljubljana at 11:17 PM on August 7, 2005

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, very helpful . . . . and I'll probably pick up a few of these for myself too.
posted by jamesonandwater at 6:19 AM on August 8, 2005