Marshal Josip Broz Tito: The Life and Legacy of Yugoslavia’s First President

by Charles River Editors

*Includes pictures *Includes Tito's own quotes about his life and career *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading *Includes a table of contents “No country of people's democracy has so many nationalities as this country has. Only in Czechoslovakia do there exist two kindred nationalities, while in some of the other countries there are only minorities. Consequently in these countries of people's democracy there has been no need to settle such serious problems as we have had to settle here. With them the road to socialism is less complicated than is the case here." - Tito The World War II era produced many leaders of titanic determination, men whose strengths and weaknesses left an extraordinary imprint on historical affairs. The struggle between massively divergent ideologies, exacerbated by huge social changes affected by the world’s technological metamorphosis into the machine age, catapulted some individuals unexpectedly onto the world stage. Josip Broz Tito, better known to history as Marshal Tito, was undoubtedly one of these figures. Originally a machinist, Tito leveraged his success in the Communist Party of Yugoslavia (CPY) and a number of extraordinary strokes of luck into dictatorial rule over Yugoslavia for a span of 35 years. World War II proved the watershed that enabled him to secure control of the country, leading an ever more powerful army of communist partisans against both the Germans and other Yugoslav factions. During the war, SS leader Heinrich Himmler himself begrudgingly stated, “He has really earned his title of Marshal. When we catch him we shall kill him at once... but I wish we had a dozen Titos in Germany, men who were leaders and had such resolution and good nerves, that, even though they were forever encircled, they would never give in.” During his reign, Tito managed to quash the intense national feelings of the diverse groups making up the Yugoslavian population, and he did so through several methods. He managed to successfully play the two superpower rivals, the United States and Soviet Union, off against each other during the Cold War, and in doing so, he maintained a considerable amount of independence from both, even as he additionally received foreign aid to keep his regime afloat. All the while he remained defiant, once penning a legendary letter to Joseph Stalin warning the Soviet dictator, “To Joseph Stop sending people to kill me! We've already captured five of them, one of them with a bomb and another with a rifle... If you don't stop sending killers, I'll send a very fast working one to Moscow and I certainly won't have to send another.” Never afraid to use political murder when expedient, yet simultaneously outgoing and good-humored to those around him, Tito created a unique and unusual state between the Western democracies and the Eastern Bloc. Only with his death did the fabric of his “national communist” state tear asunder and age-old identities reassert themselves, bringing about a period of intense conflicts that produced a new equilibrium with ethnically-based successor states that cracked up the state he once led. Marshal Josip Broz The Life and Legacy of Yugoslavia’s First President examines the life of one of the 20th century’s most influential leaders. Along with pictures of important people and places, you will learn about Tito like never before.

Genres: History

74 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 9, 2016

About the author

Charles River Editors is an independent publisher of thousands of ebooks on Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and Apple iBookstore & provider of original content for third parties.

Reviews

[Igor Ljubuncic · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was not what I expected. I thought it was going to be a unique biography on Tito's life. Instead, it was an odd collection of his life's stories, put together in an awkward fashion, with lots of quotes from other books rather than original research, making this work more suitable for an online wiki-like article. There are quite a few spelling mistakes, images don't have correct credits, and it's just too short.

I did learn some new interesting things, but overall, this feels quite incomplete. There's more focus on Tito's early days, and only just a few short references to what he did in WWII as well as his presidency as the SFRY leader for 35 years. Okay, but it should be longer and more thorough.

[Roland M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good overview

[Vikas Datta · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little too brief... misses on how he got the name Tito and the NAM part

[Becky]

When I visited Serbia before reading this book a woman told me that she wished Tito was back in power (he, of course, was dead at this time) and I was surprised. I had always thought he was a harsh dictator like Spain's Franco. That's why I read this book, to find out what kind of leader Tito was. While he could be harsh to those who tried to defy him, he also tried to keep the peace between the differing tribal groups within Yugoslavia. That all fell apart after his death and led to the wars in the 1990's.

[Charles Shapiro · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short book, which probably skips much about Tito. It starts out sounding like communist propaganda but then slips into a more neutral reporting of Tito's life. It is a fascinating story, and while Tito had a lot of warts, he did benefit that area of the world. The book does not focus on this aspect too much, but raises the question on how to evaluate the mixed bag of traits needed to be a leader in a rough and dirty world.

[Andrew Turk · Rating 2 out of 5]

I realize this was only intended to be a brief sketch of Tito’s life but, geez! I guess it’s probably good as a basic introduction to this historical figure, particularly given the dearth of audible books available about him. But it is very cursory and lacking in detail. A good jumping off the point, but probably not much more.

[Monty · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a quick overview to understanding the break-up of Yugoslavia this book helped quite a bit. Tito was an interesting and influential man responsible for holding Yugoslavia together. As dictators go he was unique.

[Jeremiah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good brief bio. He seems to have spent 90% of his early life under arrest.

[Slavko Recek · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too short.

[Travis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written and very informative.