Nedostižan kompromis

by Dejan Djokić

“Glavni je cilj ove istorijske studije da ponudi jednu moguću interpretaciju najvažnijeg od svih nacionalnih pitanja u međuratnoj jugoslovenskoj državi: srpsko-hrvatskog pitanja. Ako bih morao da svrstam knjigu u neki žanr, verovatno bih je opisao kao političku istoriju sa elementima intelektualne, društvene i diplomatske istorije. Bilo bi mi drago ako su neki od mojih argumenata i zaključaka nastali pod uticajem autora koji pripadaju srodnim disciplinama – pre svega sociologiji i politologiji – čije radove sam čitao i konsultovao dok sam pisao knjigu. Kao što u knjizi tvrdim da je međuratnu Jugoslaviju teško razumeti izvan šireg, prostornog i vremenskog, konteksta, tako smatram da ni akademska istorija ne može da napreduje u izolaciji, bez dijaloga sa drugim naučnim disciplinama. Takođe, ne verujem ni da istorijska nauka treba da beži od dijaloga sa društvom.”
--- Dejan Đokić

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Dejan Đokić je profesor moderne i savremene istorije i direktor Centra za studije Balkana na Goldsmits koledžu Univerziteta u Londonu. Naučni je saradnik britanskog Kraljevskog istorijskog društva, a bio je i naučni saradnik Centra Vudro Vilson u Vašingtonu i Instituta Hariman Kolumbija Univerziteta u Njujorku.

Genres: History

366 pages

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Professor Dejan Djokić is a historian.
Broadly speaking, his research spans across, and brings together, three main strands: the Yugoslav war; global and cultural history of the Cold War; and history of Southeastern Europe since the Middle Ages.

He is a Professor of History at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth and Fellow at the Chair of Southeast European History at Humboldt University of Berlin.

Reviews

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book looks at interwar Yugoslavia, in terms of the political conflict between Serbs and Croats, and how they were not able to come to a compromise that might have protected the state during World War II. This book is similar to one that I recently read about Transylvania, in terms of being very detailed and providing significant in depth material on the political and social movements of the time, but being a bit too detailed for the general reader. This author does a better job of explaining and analyzing the broader political goals of the Serbs (and how those conflicted with others in their kingdom). However, there were significant radical and terrorist movements across Yugoslavia at the time (including two that conspired to assassinate the king in 1934), and the author barely talks about them. Instead, he is very focused on the politicians and other leaders and their attempts to forge political compromise. This is interesting, but the book would have benefitted from a broader historical perspective.

[Anton Cebalo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strictly political history of the forgotten interwar years of Yugoslavia. Documenting all the players, alliances and compromises made, the book has much to teach about the basics of politicking. It’s almost like a lesson on how politics works, and on that account seeing all the pieces move is fascinating. So much unexpected drama…. But despite the author’s intentions in the beginning, it is sorely missing any analysis of social history, aside from sparse mentions of crowds which justifies the political action “of above” (plus some scattered stories of political violence).

In some sense, having read this I now better understand how politics functioned in the interwar years: that tepid compromise, sometimes even for its own sake, and the federalism v. centralism debate that played out again later between 1945-1991. When the book does deliver, it really gets your attention. For example, the book recounts how the people were “tired of politics” which is why they surprisingly welcomed the January 6 dictatorship of 1929.

But still, having read this, do I really now understand how the interwar years in Yugoslavia were actually lived, grasping it more broadly? Not really. And considering the vast majority at this time were peasants, this exclusive focus on politicking seems a bit narrow. But perhaps that is precisely what this book set out to do. Yet for my purposes, I was left wanting more…..

3.5/5