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Yugoslavia: A Concise History
A Concise History surveys the whole turbulent course of the country's history, in the context of the struggles between great powers for control of the Balkans. Torn apart by nationalist rivalries, the first Yugoslavia lapsed into paralysis and dictatorship. Axis occupation in 1941 unleashed a murderous civil war, in which the Communist Party emerged victorious. Tito's Yugoslavia appeared to the world as a peaceful, multi-national federation, but in the end disintegrated amid barbarism unknown in Europe for half a century. This revised and fully updated edition explains why, and takes the events up to the arrest of Milosevic in 2001and beyond.
230 pages, Hardcover
First published October 10, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
July 6, 2016
This book by Leslie Benson, which aims to compress Yugoslavia's complex history into only 200 pages, was published in the late 1990s when many people in the English-speaking world were struggling to understand the ethnic conflicts and geopolitical changes by which the Balkans became daily news everywhere for a time. A revised and updated addition appeared in 2003, with a new postscript describing the ouster of Milosevic. Benson's book retains its value even now for those wanting a fairly accessible introduction, though naturally with significant gaps due to its short length.
The book spans the entire period that several South Slav peoples lived together in a single state, first in the aftermath of World War I under the name of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and then under the name Yugoslavia through a succession of governments and borders until finally Serbia and Montenegro began to go their separate ways in 2003. However, as essential context for all this, Benson begins in the mid-19th century with Serbia's increasing independence from the Ottoman Empire. Generally Benson's history gives the impression that it was really Serbia that served as the magnet drawing the South Slavs into a single state, and Yugoslavia may never have happened had not an independent Serbia existed when the Austro-Hungarian Empire began to collapse, quick to unite with those Slovenes and Croats pushing for their own kind of independence.
This concise history certainly works as a background for the bloody conflicts of the 1990s. Benson's book really helped me understand just how deep the animosity between the constituent peoples of Yugoslavia runs. Ethnic tension didn't just start in the 1980s with the economic collapse, nor in the early 1970s when the "Croatian Spring" led that people to attack "Serbian centralism", nor even in the Ustashe-Chetnik clashes of World War II. Rather, the history of even pre-WWII Yugoslavia is marked by constant tension between Serbs and Croats especially. One comes to feel that Yugoslavia was doomed from the start, with too many politicians and cultural figures never really committing to the state.
Another informative aspect of the book is that it fleshes out the forces running amok in 1990s Serbia. Slobodan Milosevic wasn't a strongman acting alone as ordinary news readers might have believed. Though Benson notes that Milosevic could be a brutal man, he sets Milosevic as just one player in scene of several extreme nationalist politicians; Milosevic's own room for manoeuvre was sharply limited by his competitors.
The Balkans is a region marked by so much ethnic polemic that I wouldn't be surprised if a member of people X attacked Benson's book as biased towards people Y. However, this strikes me as a very evenhanded account, and Benson writes in a very dispassionate tone. Sometimes with books on the former Yugoslavia by Westerners, one can quickly identify where they spent most of their time during trips to the country, but that's not the case here. One claim that might open him up for criticism from certain directions is that he doesn't believe that Kosovo really mattered to most Serbs until Yugoslavia started to collapse. Rather than something that all Serbs intensely and continually venerated, Kosovo's fate began to interest the ordinary Serb on the street only in the 1980s when things were going south everywhere.
The downside of this history is that it is very much about politicians and economists, and their squabbles. It is hard to get a sense of how ordinary Yugoslavs lived through most of this. For me, one of the most fascinating aspects of Yugoslavia is its openness to the world and the relative mobility of its inhabitants -- the country contributed a conspicuous number of young people to the "hippie trail" from Istanbul to Kathmandu, and more mainstream Yugoslav tourists could be encountered as far away as Bali. Yugoslavia's cultural life or even the routine existence of its factory workers, office types, and peasants is never described. Ultimately, the book boils down to dry listings of changes in legislation and which politicians succeeded which.
Benson's 2003 postscript with its prediction of imminent Balkan developments also seems somewhat quaint, inasmuch as he foresaw Albanian uprisings quickly sweeping over Macedonia with further border changes. Well over a decade later, "Greater Albania" never happened and there doesn't even seem great interest in it for the time being. Naturally, we should be grateful for the comparative quiet in this region that has already seen so much conflict.
The book spans the entire period that several South Slav peoples lived together in a single state, first in the aftermath of World War I under the name of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, and then under the name Yugoslavia through a succession of governments and borders until finally Serbia and Montenegro began to go their separate ways in 2003. However, as essential context for all this, Benson begins in the mid-19th century with Serbia's increasing independence from the Ottoman Empire. Generally Benson's history gives the impression that it was really Serbia that served as the magnet drawing the South Slavs into a single state, and Yugoslavia may never have happened had not an independent Serbia existed when the Austro-Hungarian Empire began to collapse, quick to unite with those Slovenes and Croats pushing for their own kind of independence.
This concise history certainly works as a background for the bloody conflicts of the 1990s. Benson's book really helped me understand just how deep the animosity between the constituent peoples of Yugoslavia runs. Ethnic tension didn't just start in the 1980s with the economic collapse, nor in the early 1970s when the "Croatian Spring" led that people to attack "Serbian centralism", nor even in the Ustashe-Chetnik clashes of World War II. Rather, the history of even pre-WWII Yugoslavia is marked by constant tension between Serbs and Croats especially. One comes to feel that Yugoslavia was doomed from the start, with too many politicians and cultural figures never really committing to the state.
Another informative aspect of the book is that it fleshes out the forces running amok in 1990s Serbia. Slobodan Milosevic wasn't a strongman acting alone as ordinary news readers might have believed. Though Benson notes that Milosevic could be a brutal man, he sets Milosevic as just one player in scene of several extreme nationalist politicians; Milosevic's own room for manoeuvre was sharply limited by his competitors.
The Balkans is a region marked by so much ethnic polemic that I wouldn't be surprised if a member of people X attacked Benson's book as biased towards people Y. However, this strikes me as a very evenhanded account, and Benson writes in a very dispassionate tone. Sometimes with books on the former Yugoslavia by Westerners, one can quickly identify where they spent most of their time during trips to the country, but that's not the case here. One claim that might open him up for criticism from certain directions is that he doesn't believe that Kosovo really mattered to most Serbs until Yugoslavia started to collapse. Rather than something that all Serbs intensely and continually venerated, Kosovo's fate began to interest the ordinary Serb on the street only in the 1980s when things were going south everywhere.
The downside of this history is that it is very much about politicians and economists, and their squabbles. It is hard to get a sense of how ordinary Yugoslavs lived through most of this. For me, one of the most fascinating aspects of Yugoslavia is its openness to the world and the relative mobility of its inhabitants -- the country contributed a conspicuous number of young people to the "hippie trail" from Istanbul to Kathmandu, and more mainstream Yugoslav tourists could be encountered as far away as Bali. Yugoslavia's cultural life or even the routine existence of its factory workers, office types, and peasants is never described. Ultimately, the book boils down to dry listings of changes in legislation and which politicians succeeded which.
Benson's 2003 postscript with its prediction of imminent Balkan developments also seems somewhat quaint, inasmuch as he foresaw Albanian uprisings quickly sweeping over Macedonia with further border changes. Well over a decade later, "Greater Albania" never happened and there doesn't even seem great interest in it for the time being. Naturally, we should be grateful for the comparative quiet in this region that has already seen so much conflict.
May 4, 2021
Decent summary of the history. Knocking off two stars due to the author's clear anti-Tito bias
June 11, 2023
The complexities underlying Balkan history cannot be understated and I'm leaving this book with more of an appreciation for why this region has been plagued with trauma and pain for so many years. That being said, I supplemented with Internet searches - it is certainly dry and the many moving pieces introduced in the first chapters made my head spin! These moving pieces do have a pay-off, however, in setting up the multiple factions that become incredibly relevant as the attempt to unify all of the Balkan states under one banner proceeds.
January 26, 2014
This was a fascinating and illuminating review of the rise and fall of Yugoslavia in all of it's historical incarnations, up to, and including, the post war atomised client states of the Former Yugoslavia.
The history of Yugoslavia is one of internecine warfare; western assistance and interference, and demagogues of varying degrees of decadence. In order to understand the current Western-made crisis in the Balkans, it is of paramount importance to consider the national calamities which were the result of strategic intent (Western loans to support Tito's self-governing Socialism) and amoral indifference (Badinters' arbitrary concept of sovereignty and national identity).
Whilst the majority of us reading this book will be well-accustomed to the lazy World View that the Eastern Bloc was morally bankrupt and economically moribund, whilst the West was "Free" and all-things to all men, the above book challenges this omnipotent myth. The history of Yugoslavia, demonstrates the reality of Western interference, and indifference after the political and economic ends have been attained. In this context, the book acts as both a blueprint of all Liberal-Democratic interventions, and as a warning to other nations about the price to be paid for wishing to be a part of the EU - NATO sect.
The history of Yugoslavia is one of internecine warfare; western assistance and interference, and demagogues of varying degrees of decadence. In order to understand the current Western-made crisis in the Balkans, it is of paramount importance to consider the national calamities which were the result of strategic intent (Western loans to support Tito's self-governing Socialism) and amoral indifference (Badinters' arbitrary concept of sovereignty and national identity).
Whilst the majority of us reading this book will be well-accustomed to the lazy World View that the Eastern Bloc was morally bankrupt and economically moribund, whilst the West was "Free" and all-things to all men, the above book challenges this omnipotent myth. The history of Yugoslavia, demonstrates the reality of Western interference, and indifference after the political and economic ends have been attained. In this context, the book acts as both a blueprint of all Liberal-Democratic interventions, and as a warning to other nations about the price to be paid for wishing to be a part of the EU - NATO sect.
October 22, 2023
For a book that aims to be concise, Benson spends a lot of time in the weeds of minor political machinations.
While there were a few quite engaging passages, on the whole this book was a slow read - and sometimes downright boring.
While there were a few quite engaging passages, on the whole this book was a slow read - and sometimes downright boring.
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May 29, 2009Yugoslavia: A Concise History by Leslie Benson (2002)
March 21, 2013
A decent and concise history of Yugoslavia. I personally didn't feel the writing style was all that engaging, more dry and to the high detail that broader overview.
September 13, 2015
Not very in-depth but concise indeed. Some broad claims made and poorly supported, but I don't think it's really trying to be incredibly vigorous.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews