Thinking about Yugoslavia: Scholarly Debates about the Yugoslav Breakup and the Wars in Bosnia and Kosovo

The Yugoslav break up and conflict have given rise to a considerable literature offering dramatically different interpretations of what happened. But just how do the various interpretations relate to each other? This ambitious new book by Sabrina Ramet, an eminent commentator on recent Balkan politics and history, reviews and analyses more than 130 books about the troubled region and compares their accounts, theories, and interpretations of events. Ramet surveys the major debates which divide the field, alternative accounts of the causes of Yugoslavia's violent collapse, and the scholarly debates concerning humanitarian intervention. Rival accounts are presented side by side for easy comparison. Thinking about Yugoslavia examines books on Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Kosovo which were published in English, German, Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian, and Italian, thus offering the English-speaking reader a unique insight into the controversies.

Table of Contents:
Preface; List of books reviewed; 1. Debates about the war; 2. The collapse of Eastern European communism; 3. The roots of the Yugoslav collapse; 4. Who's to blame? Rival accounts of the war; 5. Memoirs and autobiographies; 6. The scourge of nationalism and the quest for harmony; 7. Milo∫evic's place in history; 8. Dilemmas in post-Dayton Bosnia; 9. Crisis in Kosovo/a; 10. Debates about intervention; 11. Lands and peoples: Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia; 12. Southern Republics: Macedonia and Montenegro in contemporary history; Conclusion: Controversies, methodological disputes and suggested reading.

About the Author :
Sabrina P. Ramet is a Professor of Political Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway, and a Senior Associate of the Centre for the study of Civil War, PRIO. She is the author of nine books, including Balkan Babel: The Disintegration of Yugoslavia from the Death of Tito to the Fall of Milosevic (4th ed 2002).

Review :
'... a tour de force of extensive reading, commentary, and insight that encounters most of the scholarly controversies surrounding these brutal wars ... Everyone who reads it will come away better informed about the amazing breadth of the rich scholarship on the Yugoslav wars.' Russian Review 'This is the most comprehensive attempt yet to catalog the rival accounts of and controversies over the Balkan wars ... The impressive number of works analyzed is matched by an equally impressive scope of the themes covered ... All in all, Ramet's study is an invaluable guide for students of Balkan politics.' Internationale Politik 'Ramet arranges the diverse answers of American, German, English, Croatian, Serbian, and other authors (to controversial questions). She describes the often diametrically different positions succinctly ...' Komune '... the obvious first pick for people interested in reading on these topics.' East Central Europe Journal