Recounts Judah's firsthand experiences of many of the most horrifying episodes of the war in the former Yugoslavia while on assignment there from 1990-1995. Judah offers here a thorough & fair-minded account of the Serbs & their past. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

After a brief historical overview, Judah, formerly Balkan correspondent for the London Times, turns his focus to the past 100 years, and specifically, to the decades since WWII. During the 17th century, the Serbs (aided by Austria) waged almost continuous warfare against the Turks, eventually pushing the Turkish forces southward and recapturing Belgrade. But in the 20th century, Serbia (protected by Russia following the Russo-Turkish War) had a far dimmer view of Austrian interference in the region , particularly after Austria's annexation of the former Turkish provinces of Bosnia-Herzegovina‘the step that eventually led to Gavrilo Princip's assassination of Austria's Archduke Ferdinand and WWI. The crisscrossing armies left Serbia, says Judah, as a mosaic of mini-states with much in common: they spoke the same language, looked alike and shared many customs. However there was one big line dividing them‘religion. With Roman Catholics in the West, Eastern Orthodox Christians in the East and Muslims in the center, there was constant tension between the centrists and dispersionists. Even though the Serbs, more than any other group, were spread across Yugoslavia, Judah believes the breakup following Tito's death was inevitable. Judah's analysis of Serbia's history and the large cast of characters who shaped the country is complex, even tortuous at time, which can make for a tiring read. (Apr.) From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Judah, a correspondent for the LondonTimes and the Economist, satisfies a critical need in the burgeoning literature of the former Yugoslavia by focusing on a single nation. Yugoslavia's destruction emerges less as an event of malicious volition than as the consequence of the "lie" of South Slav unity after World War I. This perspective combines a broad interpretation of nationalism in Serbia proper with the involvement of outside actors and the Serb diaspora. Judah is at his best in depicting the Serbs' powerful myths about their history, their post-World War II repression, and their exploitation by Slobodan Milo sevi'c. For all its detail, this is not a history of Serbia but a work of interpretation whose judgment on recent events is controversial. Neither minimizing the region's historical violence nor exculpating those responsible, the author shuns the simplistic platitudes of religous atavism for a more complex "cycle of vengeance" throughout the area. The book's scope and quality recommend it a place alongside such durable works as Ivo Banac's The National Question in Yugoslavia (1984). For all academic and larger public libraries.‘Zachary T. Irwin, Pennsylvania State Univ., Erie From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Judah's balanced, well-written account of the Yugoslav conflict is different in at least two respects. First, it is not just another war story, but a serious explanation of how the Serbs have earned their international notoriety as the war's brutal aggressors. Second, although Judah is a former war correspondent for the London Times and The Economist, his book transcends the journalist's usual action narrative. The first and better half shows well how the Serb nation's historical development left it vulnerable to manipulation of historical myths by ruthless demagogues like Slobodan Milo%sevic, and emphasizes the region's forced mass population migrations and expulsions long before the term "ethnic cleansing" was coined. Judah's analysis of Yugoslavia's creation at the end of WW I demonstrates how the new Serb-dominated state failed to address the divergent traditions, visions, and agendas of its many peoples. Judah spells out his usage of terms, employs footnotes, and produces informative tables and very detailed and accurate maps. Nevertheless, his assessment of the war is neither particularly sophisticated nor methodologically different from accounts by other journalists. The author was not privy to sources that add meaningfully to an understanding of the war. Still, this is a first-rate profile of the Serb nation from which general readers can derive a great deal. C. Ingrao; Purdue University From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Timothy Judah was Balkans correspondent for the London Times and the Economist, reporting from Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, and the former Yugoslavia Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

List of Illustrations	p. viii
Preface to the New Edition	p. x
Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgements	p. xiv
Author's Note	p. xv
List of Abbreviations	p. xvii
1 Death Does Not Exist	p. 1
Migrations
The Arrival of the Slavs
The First Kingdoms
The Arrival of the Turks
The Military Frontier
2 An Empire on Earth	p. 17
Birth of a Dynasty
The Holy Roots
High Noon of Empire
Retreat from Empire
3 It Is Better to Die in Battle Than to Live in Shame	p. 29
The Battle and its Aftermath
Lazar's Choice: The Empire of Heaven
The Cult of Death
Preserving the Message
The Heavenly State
4 Resurrection and Beyond	p. 48
From Pig Dealers to Princes
From History into Ideology
Creating the New Nationalism
5 Cutting the Turks into Pieces	p. 73
The Burning Tradition
Bosnia's Sulphurous Vapours
They Are Not Human Beings: The Balkan Wars
Instinct and Experience: How Many?
6 Union or Death	p. 90
Narodno Jedinstvo: The Birth of 'National Unity'?
Sarajevo, 1914
Agony and Resurrection
Over There, Far Away: Corfu 1917
The Empire Restored
7 We Chose the Heavenly Kingdom	p. 113
Decline and Fall
Into the Whirlwind
Croatia, Kaputt
Kosovo: Land of Revenge
Frankenstein's Monster
8 You Used to Warm Us Like the Sun	p. 135
White Lines and Marble Columns
Blind Alleys
Rankovic and Beyond
Croatian Spring
Serbian Summer
Kosovo: Use Brute Force
Bosnian Spirit
A Proposal for Hopelessness
Antique God
Bolshevism Is Bad But Nationalism Is Worse (Radovan Karadzic)
9 Frankie and Badger Go to War	p. 168
Framing the Serbs
Goodbye Slovenia, Hello Croatia
You Must Have
Bloodshed to Make a Country
We've Been Here Before!
Rusty Shoehorns
Half-Time
10 We Are the Strongest	p. 191
Which Side Will You Be On?
On the Highway to Hell
11 It Was War...	p. 204
The Croatian Connection
Corridor Life
Sarajevo: Serbian Defeat
Pale: Fiction Met Reality
12 The Madmen Take Over the Asylum	p. 225
Bosanski Novi and the Spare Ribs
The Banality of Evil?
No One Will Harm You!
13 The War for More	p. 242
The Bihac Bazaar and the Human Hens
Bosnia: Open for Business
Belgrade-Chicago
14 363 Quadrillion Per Cent	p. 259
The Price We Must Pay...
Banks, What Banks?
The Inflationary Tsunami
Surfing the Tsunami
Supergrandpa to the Rescue
Serbia's Loss, Canada's Gain
15 Skull Towers	p. 279
Days in Hell
The Idea Is on the Table
House Hunters
16 ... For Nothing	p. 295
Serbs to Sacrifice
Simplifying Matters
On Board the Supertanker
The Spider's Web
17 End of Empire	p. 312
Land of the Living Past
From Enver to Rambouillet
Isolation
Our Nation is a Hero
Heavenly People
Appendix 1 National Structure of Yugoslavia, 1918	p. 338
Appendix 2 Yugoslav Census of 1961	p. 339
Appendix 3 Yugoslav Census of 1981	p. 340
Appendix 4 Yugoslav Census of 1991	p. 343
Appendix 5 Population of Kosovo, 1948-91	p. 345
Notes	p. 346
Select Bibliography	p. 362
Index	p. 367

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