Balkanalysis.com

This month on Balkanalysis.com, readers primarily selected books that have recently been reviewed on these pages with, as usual, a few related (and not so related) exceptions. Balkan history from the first third of the last century was well represented, with readers picking up books like the newly-reviewed Stjepan Radic, the Croat Peasant Party, and [...]

Stjepan Radic, the Croat Peasant Party, and the Politics of Mass Mobilization, 1904-1928 By Mark Biondich University of Toronto Press (2000), 344 pp. Reviewed by Christopher Deliso This invaluable contribution to Croatian political life in the early twentieth century, centered on the towering figure of Stjepan Radic (1871-1928), chronicles the development of Croatian political and [...]

By Christopher Deliso In November 2003, the Transportation Security Administration – one of the front-line fighters in the war on terror – shelled out almost half a million dollars for one glorious night of awards and entertainment. According to an internal investigation carried out by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General, the [...]

Although they swarmed to the 60th anniversary commemoration of the liberation of the largest WWII concentration camp at Auschwitz on 27 January, the Western media almost completely ignored a similar event held this past Sunday to recognize the 60th anniversary of the closing of Jasenovac, the notorious Croat Ustasha concentration camp at which between 300,000-700,000 [...]

A quick apology to readers of the Military Operations Macedonia book review published recently on Balkanalysis.com: the link to the actual book originally embedded in the article was mistakenly set to the second volume of this work, not the first as it should have been. That has been corrected in the above review. Or, you [...]

It is remarkable that Timothy Garton Ash, writing about the issue of EU expansion in the Balkans, can correctly point out the dangers of inciting internal grumblings about “overextension” and taking in the poor masses – and still conclude that “…isn’t the prospect of a Pax Europeana, embracing the whole continent, worth the undoubted risk?” [...]

By Carl Savich What will be Pope John Paul II’s legacy? In the week between his death and funeral, the media have lionized him with candy-coated encomiums as a peace-loving pope who brought down Communism and ushered in the New World Order. His place in history is assured as a determined anti-Communist who revitalized the [...]

Military Operations Macedonia (Part 1), From the Outbreak of War to the Spring of 1917 The Imperial War Museum and The Battery Press (1933, reprinted 1997), 409 pp., 8 appendices, 16 maps (including 1 fold-out) and 5 pictures Rescuing long-forgotten details of the First World War in the Balkans, this official monograph of the British [...]

In a spectacular reversal of fortunes, beleaguered Macedonia has been declared a full European Union member state, effective immediately. In an unprecedented act of solidarity, the bloc voted unanimously to pass the Bucherinska Act, to reward the year’s most obedient beggar state. “As far as we’re concerned,” stated EU Enlargement Chief Ollie Rehn, “by carrying [...]