The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia - Softcover

Judah, Tim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0300158262 ISBN 13: 9780300158267

Publisher: Yale University Press, 2010

Synopsis

Journalist Tim Judah’s classic account, now brought fully up to date to include the overthrow of Miloševic, the assassination of Zoran Djindic, the breakaway of Kosovo, and the arrest of Radovan Karadžic.

 

Praise for the first edition:

 

"A lively and balanced history of the Serbs."―Aleksa Djilas, New York Times Book Review

 

"Judah writes splendidly. . . .The story he tells does much to explain both the Serb obsession with the treachery of outsiders and their quasi-religious faith in the eventual founding, or rather reestablishment, of the Serbian state."―Mark Danner, New York Review of Books 

 

"Judah's book is probably the best attempt to date to explain the calamitous situation of the Serbs today through a meticulous consideration of the Serb past."―David Rieff, Toronto Globe and Mail

 

Tim Judah was Balkans correspondent for the London Times and the Economist, and has been a frequent contributor The New York Review of Books.

About this title

Review:

The recent war in Bosnia re-ignited ancient hatreds and led to acts of brutality that echoed World War II atrocities: large-scale massacres and "ethnic cleansing". Bosnian Serbs, aided by Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, systematically murdered, raped, and terrorized Bosnian Muslims as they strove to create a Greater Serbia. Now, journalist Tim Judah provides some perspective on the horrors of the Bosnian conflict with The Serbs. Make no mistake, Judah is not an apologist for Serbian excesses; rather, he aims to explicate the Balkans' long and violent history leading to this latest tragic conflict.

The Serbs begins with the establishment of a Serbian state in the Middle Ages, then follows Serb fortunes through ensuing centuries of conquest, conflict, and oppression. Ethnic cleansing in the Balkans is hardly unique to the Bosnian war; it has been a horrific element of all Balkan conflicts, and Judah convincingly argues that Serbian nationalism is an outgrowth of the Serbs' own sufferings as victims of ethnic cleansing in past conflicts. Anyone interested in current affairs--particularly in the Balkans--will find Tim Judah's The Serbs an engrossing and important exploration of the Bosnian conflict.

From the Inside Flap:

Journalist Tim Judah witnessed firsthand many of the most horrifying episodes of the war in former Yugoslavia which he has covered since the first shot, in 1991. Judah offers here a history of the Serbs from medieval times to the present, combining a gripping personal description of the war with a skillful analysis of the historical and cultural context out of which it emerged. For this new paperback edition Judah adds observations on the rise of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the war in Kosovo, and NATO's 78-day bombing campaign of Yugoslavia.

About this edition

• Publisher: Yale University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0300158262
• ISBN 13: 9780300158267
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 464