History of the Balkans. From the Earliest Times to 1919

by Ferdinand Schevill

"This book is concerned with the story of man on the southeastern projection of Europe, known as the Balkan peninsula. For practical purposes the story begins with the Greeks, because the Greeks, though not the original inhabitants of the peninsula, were the first to leave a clear record of themselves and their neighbors. From the Hellenic period, when the mists hiding the land from view begin to lift, to the twentieth century of the Christian era is a span of about three thousand years. During that long stretch of time what migrations, wars, settlements, worships, and civilizations make their appearance in the deep perspective of Balkan history! What peoples march across the soil, fair-haired, strong-limbed warriors clothed in skins, succeeded by dark, bronzed men, curved over the backs of horses and alert for plunder! An epic tale is about to engage our attention..." - Ferdinand Schevill

Contents: The Epochs of Balkan History. The Geography of the Balkan Peninsula. The Greek and Roman Epochs of Balkan History. The Age of Justinian. The Slav and Mongolian Invasions. New Persian Wars and the Rescue of the Empire by Heraclius. The Slavs. The Coming of the Arabs and the Rescue of the Empire by Leo the Isaurian. The Coming of the Bulgars. The Creation of the Bulgar State and Its Greatness under Boris and Simeon. The Byzantine Empire at Its Height under the Basilian Dynasty (867-1056). The Decline of the Byzantine Empire and Its Overthrow by the Fourth Crusade. The Serb Empire of the Fourteenth Century. Mt. Athos. The Bogumil Heresy. The Latin States on Hellenic Soil. The Republic of Ragusa. The Coming of the Ottoman Turks. The Second Century of the Ottomans: the Conquest of Constantinople and the Consolidation of the Ottoman Empire in Europe. The Ottoman Empire at Its Height. The Ottoman Institutions and Society. The Beginning of Ottoman Decay. Europe Assumes the Offensive against the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire in the Era of the French Revolution and Napoleon Bonaparte. A Survey of the Ottoman Empire at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century. The Serb Revolt and the Founding of the Serb State. The Revolt of the Greeks and the Founding of the Greek Kingdom. Continued Decay of the Ottoman Empire. First Attempts at Reform. The Crimean War (1854-56). The Affairs of Moldavia and Wallachia and the Founding of the Rumanian State. Between Two Wars: Balkan Developments from the Treaty of Paris to the Turco-Russian War of 1877. The Turco-Russian War (1877) and The Congress of Berlin (1878). The Making of Bulgaria. Sultan Abdul Hamid II. New Phases of Ottoman Decay: Armenia, Crete, Macedonia. New Phases of European Policy. The Bagdad Railway. The Turkish Revolution of 1908. The Annexation of Bosnia and the European Crisis of 1908. Domestic Policy of the Young Turks. Revolt of Albania. New Ottoman Wars: the War with Italy (1911); the First Balkan War (1912); the Second Balkan War (1913). The Great War and the Balkan Peninsula. The Peace, and After. The Balkan Peninsula and the Near East: the Newest Phase of an Ancient Problem.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

356 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 1992

About the author

Ferdinand Schevill (1868–1954) was an American historian.

He graduated from Yale University in 1889 and finished his PhD at Freiburg in 1892. That same year he arrived at the University of Chicago, where he taught from 1892 to 1937.

Schevill’s first book, a textbook on Western European history, was Political History of Europe from 1500 to the Present Day. It was revised and reissued many times. In 1922 he publishedThe History of the Balkan Peninsula: From the Earliest Times to the Present Day. Schevill retired in 1924. In 1930 he reentered the University in the Humanities General Course of general education. He retired five years later to finish The History of Florence (1936).

Reviews

[Ariton Salihu · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had the privilege to read this horrible book because of my university, because for some reason they still use this outdated mess, although I could go on writing a whole review of the book I'll save you the trouble and just tell you to skip it altogether, it's an old book writing in the 1920s that's horrible enough since as historians we should be reading new up to date books and not politically motivated history books from 100 years ago

Also, this book has absolutely no footnotes to speak of, what a mess

[Gene Tosto · Rating 4 out of 5]

Complex and informative

Mr. Schevill provides an intriguing overview of a part of the world that has certainly influenced world events beyond their size and scope.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Orientalist, Islamophobic, laughably incorrect book of history that is more useful in analyzing the author's biases than accurate history. Pass.

[Nathaniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

For a "historian," the author was laughably nonobjective. Even for the book being written just after World War 1. He seemed to hate every civilization that wasn't Roman (or ones he perceived weren't Roman). This includes the Byzantines, Revolutionary France, and the Ottomans. There was very little about Balkan culture. The most informative parts of the book are in the first few hundred pages, as it covers the migrations of the Slavic peoples into the Balkans.

After that, the book would better be titled "The History of the Balkans under Subjugation," because it spent the majority of its time talking about the Byzantines or the Ottomans. I get that you have to talk about both of these empires to cover the Balkans, but beyond Slavic resistance to the Ottomans, there wasn't a whole lot about the Slavs. The book covered the Bulgarians and the Romanians more than any other Slavic peoples. Croatia was practically ignored, as was Bosnia. Serbia was mentioned a lot less than I would expect considering how central it was to the politics of the region.

I guess if you want a retelling of the all the Ottoman wars in the 19th and 20th centuries from someone who has a great disdain for them, then this might be your book. Otherwise, I would skip it.

[M Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since this was written in the early 1920s (as the war between the Ataturk Turks and the Greeks still was undecided), I expected a very pro-Serb slant. But this is more a political/diplomatic history of the Great Powers' attempts to control the peninsula. It is done in a very even-handed way with everyone getting criticized except the Austrians and is quite accurate as far as I can tell (and this is not my first foray into this subject).

While he does devote some space to each of the nations that have emerged, ardent Serbs, Bulgars, Greek, etc. will not be happy with their role in this book or feel that their grievances have received enough ink. For someone like me who wonders how this area became such a bottomless well of hatred, the book had some useful insights and was well-written in an ornate and outdated style.

[Mark Parker-Magyar · Rating 2 out of 5]

Has some good historical facts in it, and is an interesting time capsule of historical perspectives and frames of seeing the world that are taken for granted and unchallenged, but this book is remarkably concerned with the morale character of the races that inhabit the Balkans and their fundamental characteristics. As in really, remarkably racist.

[Roxy]

Quite old-fashioned style of history and history writing- as it is a reprint of Schevill’s 1920’s-era original.