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The Balkans: A History of Bulgaria and Serbia
Pyrrhus Press specializes in bringing books long out of date back to life, allowing today’s readers access to yesterday’s treasures.
Nevill Forbes’ The Balkans: A History of Bulgaria and Serbia is an expansive look at one of the world’s geopolitical hotspots, the Balkans, with a focus on some of the background history that brought about the tensions of World War I.
125 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1915
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 4, 2020
I searched out this book to coincide with my reading of Guns of August and I’m very glad I did since it finally gave me a clearer idea why the assassination of an Austrian heir by a Bosnian Serb would have consequences for the entire world. In GoA, Tuchman makes it clear in her forward that she will avoid the Balkan question in her analysis of the Western European situation of August 1914. True to her word, she devotes just one page to the spark which began the Great War.
The Balkans is a collaborative effort of 4 Brits: Nevill Forbes wrote the histories of Bulgaria and Serbia; Arnold Toynbee contributed the Greek history; the Rumanian section was written by D. Mitrany and the history of Turkey by D.G. Hogarth. Published in 1915, this book fit my needs perfectly since the focus of all four authors very much centered on the complex relationships between this region and the Great Powers and the reasons why this volatile peninsula was very much at the forefront of current affairs. In the intro, written by Hogarth, the authors pledge to attempt a fair and impartial evaluation despite their British perspective.
I found that the histories of Bulgaria and Serbia, as well as Rumania, were the most helpful, in part because I felt that Forbes and Mitrany were best able to meet this goal of impartiality. Toynbee felt the most dated, partly because of the apparent bias that because Greece was the seat of Western philosophy, the Greek peoples are somehow more civilized than others of the region. And Hogarth’s section focused mainly on the recent history of the Ottoman Empire, reasons for its slow crumbling, and speculation as to how the outcome of WW1 would redefine its government.
Forbes gave a concise but clear history, untangling the many religious and ethnic populations, their nationalistic sympathies and reasons behind the often toxic incursions of Western European, Russian and Ottoman influence. Mitrany directly construed the outcome of the Balkan Wars of the early 20th century as a prelude to WW1 and ended his section with a plea to European nations not to continue abusing this arena for their own balance of power benefit:
“When, as the outcome of the present false situation, sooner or later the dynastic power breaks, it will then be for the powers who are now fighting for better principles not to impose their own views upon the peoples, or to place their own princes upon the vacant thrones. Rather must they see that the small nations of the Near East are given a chance to develop in peace and according to their proper ideals; that they be not again subjected to the disintegrating influence of European diplomacy; and that, above all, to the nations in common, irrespective of their present attitude, there should be a just application of the 'principle of nationality'.”
A useful and positive reminder for all larger nations in their dealings with the small, now as much as in the past.
The Balkans is a collaborative effort of 4 Brits: Nevill Forbes wrote the histories of Bulgaria and Serbia; Arnold Toynbee contributed the Greek history; the Rumanian section was written by D. Mitrany and the history of Turkey by D.G. Hogarth. Published in 1915, this book fit my needs perfectly since the focus of all four authors very much centered on the complex relationships between this region and the Great Powers and the reasons why this volatile peninsula was very much at the forefront of current affairs. In the intro, written by Hogarth, the authors pledge to attempt a fair and impartial evaluation despite their British perspective.
I found that the histories of Bulgaria and Serbia, as well as Rumania, were the most helpful, in part because I felt that Forbes and Mitrany were best able to meet this goal of impartiality. Toynbee felt the most dated, partly because of the apparent bias that because Greece was the seat of Western philosophy, the Greek peoples are somehow more civilized than others of the region. And Hogarth’s section focused mainly on the recent history of the Ottoman Empire, reasons for its slow crumbling, and speculation as to how the outcome of WW1 would redefine its government.
Forbes gave a concise but clear history, untangling the many religious and ethnic populations, their nationalistic sympathies and reasons behind the often toxic incursions of Western European, Russian and Ottoman influence. Mitrany directly construed the outcome of the Balkan Wars of the early 20th century as a prelude to WW1 and ended his section with a plea to European nations not to continue abusing this arena for their own balance of power benefit:
“When, as the outcome of the present false situation, sooner or later the dynastic power breaks, it will then be for the powers who are now fighting for better principles not to impose their own views upon the peoples, or to place their own princes upon the vacant thrones. Rather must they see that the small nations of the Near East are given a chance to develop in peace and according to their proper ideals; that they be not again subjected to the disintegrating influence of European diplomacy; and that, above all, to the nations in common, irrespective of their present attitude, there should be a just application of the 'principle of nationality'.”
A useful and positive reminder for all larger nations in their dealings with the small, now as much as in the past.
November 6, 2019
Indispensable. Both sections on Greece and Turkey alone are 5 star worthy.
February 3, 2015
Cuanndo estudié Historia en la escuela la Guerra de los Balcanesera un temacarente de importancia para todos los nacidos en América. El año pasasado que se conmemoró el primer centenario de la Gran Guerra, el tema salió a la luz en los múltiples programas de History Channel sobre las guerras mundiales.Alguien sabíalas causas de las 2 Guerras de los Balcanes? Yo no. Bien, pues estelibro nos da un recuento de de aquellos pueblos carentes de una identidad nacional y que a fuerza de golpes propinados por sus conquistadores, los turcos del Imperio Otomano, decidieron unirse en un Estado Nacional: Bulgaria, Rumanía, Grecia, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina y Albania lo consiguieron a pesar de las Grandes Potencias.
January 7, 2015
A perceptive, old-time history
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews