Balkan Babel: The Disintegration Of Yugoslavia From The Death Of Tito To The War For Kosovo - Softcover

Ramet, Sabrina

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813390346 ISBN 13: 9780813390345

Publisher: Westview Press, 1999

Synopsis

The third edition of this critically acclaimed work includes three new chapters and a new epilogue, as well as revisions throughout the book. Sabrina Ramet, a veteran observer of the Yugoslav scene, traces the steady deterioration of Yugoslavia's political and social fabric in the years since 1980, arguing that, whatever the complications entailed in the national question, the final crisis was triggered by economic deterioration, shaped by the federal system itself, and pushed forward toward war by Serbian politicians bent on power -- either within a centralized Yugoslavia or within an ”ethnically cleansed” Greater Serbia. The book sheds light on the contributions made by Croatian naivete and Western diplomatic bungling to the tragedy in Bosnia, discusses the course of the Serbian Insurrectionary War in both Croatia and Bosnia, and devotes a chapter to examining the separate paths of Slovenia and Macedonia, before turning to an assessment of the record in post-Dayton Bosnia and Serb Albanian frictions in Kosovė during 1989-98. Chapters on the primary religious associations and on the rock scene help to set the political developments in perspective. With her detailed knowledge of the organic connections between politics, culture, and religion, Ramet paints a strikingly original picture of Yugoslavia's demise and the emergence of the Yugoslav successor states.

About this title

About the Author

Sabrina P. Ramet is professor of political science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. She is the author of over eleven books, including Whose Democracy? Nationalism, Religion, and the Doctrine of Collective Rights in Post-1989 Eastern Europe and Nihil Obstat: Religion, Politics, and Social Change in East-Central Europe and Russia. She is also the editor or coeditor of more than two dozen books, mostly about Eastern Europe and Russia.

Review

"An excellent introduction to the recent history of the South Slavs' descent into the inferno." -- -Mark Almond, author of Religion, State, and Society

"Balkan Babel has no peer in the literature about Yugoslavia's terminal crisis, dissolution and serial wars....Indispensable!" -- -Mark Thompson, author of A Paper House: The Ending of Yugoslavia

"Highly recommended." -- -Choice

"The product of meticulous research and fine writing... Worth reading. A fascinating look at Yugoslav society." -- -Nationalities Papers

About this edition

• Publisher: Westview Press
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0813390346
• ISBN 13: 9780813390345
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 400