Modernism in Serbia: The Elusive Margins of Belgrade Architecture, 1919-1941
By Ljiljana Blagojevic
MIT Press (2003), 300 pp.
Reviewed by Christopher Deliso
Architecture has long commanded public attention in the Balkans. Swedish diplomats lament the low-quality granite used not long ago to create public thoroughfares in Kosovo – itself an experiment in building – and organized debates are sparked [...]
A Brief History of the Late Ottoman Empire
By M. Sukru Hanioglu
Princeton University Press (2008), 288 pp.
Reviewed by Seth C. Elder*
Far too often, the narrative of the collapse of an empire becomes a moral drama. Wealth is drained away by decadence, and power undercut by corruption. There are attempts at recovery, reform, re-consolidation; perhaps a war, [...]
Population Exchange in Greek Macedonia: the Rural Settlement of Refugees 1922-1930
By Elisabeth Kontogiorgi
Clarendon Press (Oxford) 2006
Reviewed by Melina Grizo*
Over a decade ago, an anthropological study of Greek Macedonia conducted by scholar Anastasia Karakasidou resulted in violent reactions from Greek nationalists, and also generated great interest among the community of Balkan researchers. In her book, Fields [...]
Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro
By Elizabeth Roberts
Cornell University Press (2007), 521 pp.
Reviewed by Christopher Deliso
Although released just in 2007, Realm of the Black Mountain: A History of Montenegro comes from a much older school of scholarship. With this much needed work, former diplomat Elizabeth Roberts has produced the newest and [...]
Macedonian: A Course for Beginning and Intermediate Students
By Christina E. Kramer
University of Wisconsin Press, 2nd edition (2003), 530 pp., some illustrations
Reviewed by Christopher Deliso
The year 2008 was declared the ‘Year of the Macedonian language’ by the government in Skopje, a proclamation that has been echoed by the far-flung Macedonian diaspora in different ways. That [...]
By Ellen Mickiewicz
Cambridge University Press (2008), 220 pp.
Reviewed by Christopher Deliso
Since the days of the Soviet Union, the role of the media in shaping public opinion in Russia has been continuously scrutinized by foreign observers. This year, a series of events ranging from the transfer of power from [...]
Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese
By Patrick Leigh Fermor
John Murray, London (2004) 320 pp.
Reviewed by Christopher Deliso
2008 marks the fiftieth anniversary of the original publication of Patrick Leigh Fermor’s Mani: Travels in the Southern Peloponnese, considered one of the most important travelogues of the 20th century by many critics. Although the book is now often [...]
A Nation at Bay: What an American Woman Saw and Did in Suffering Serbia
By Ruth S. Farnam, over 30 B/W photos
Bobbs-Merrill Co. (1918), 229 pp.
Reviewed by Christopher Deliso
This remarkable first-hand account of the First World War in the Balkans, available infrequently and only in its original 1918 printing, is the passionately told work of an [...]
Byzantium’s Balkan Frontier: A Political Study of the Northern Balkans, 900-1204
by Paul Stephenson
Cambridge University Press (2000), 352 pp., 22 maps and tables
Reviewed by Christopher Deliso
This is one of the most important contemporary books for the history of the Byzantine Balkans. It creates a thoroughly new picture of the social, economic and political life of the [...]
Unholy Terror: Bosnia, Al-Qa’ida, and the Rise of Global Jihad
By John R. Schindler
Zenith Press (2007), 368 pp.
Reviewed by Christopher Deliso
Note: Owing to length, the following review is being published in two parts.
Part one appeared on March 22, 2008. Part two (March 29, 2008) appears below.
Deception and Deceit: The Media and the War
The second and third [...]
Unholy Terror: Bosnia, Al-Qa’ida, and the Rise of Global Jihad
By John R. Schindler
Zenith Press (2007), 368 pp.
Reviewed by Christopher Deliso
Note: Owing to length, the following review is being published in two parts.
Part one, which follows below, appears on March 22, 2008. Part two will appear on March 29, 2008.
Unholy Terror: Bosnia, Al-Qa’ida, and the Rise [...]
The Falcon and the Eagle: Montenegro and Austria-Hungary, 1908-1914
By John D. Treadway
Purdue University Press (1983), 349 pp.
Reviewed by Christopher Deliso
In the preface to this helpful study of Montenegrin diplomacy in the pre-WWI era, author John D. Treadway cites Greek-Canadian historian L.S. Stavrianos: “the role of Montenegro in South Slav and general Balkan affairs was quote [...]
Balkanalysis.com would like to announce a new biweekly section for reviews of Balkan-interest books. A new book will be reviewed every other weekend in this space, starting on Saturday, February 23.
