A Concise History of Serbia

Cambridge Concise Histories

by Dejan Djokić

This accessible and engaging book covers the full span of Serbia's history, from the sixth-century Slav migrations up to the present day. It traces key developments surrounding the medieval and modern polities associated with Serbs, revealing a fascinating history of entanglements and communication between southeastern and wider Europe, sometimes with global implications. This is a history of Serb states, institutions, and societies, which also gives voice to individual experiences in an attempt to understand how the events described impacted the people who lived through them. Although no real continuity between the pre-modern and modern periods exists, Dejan Djokić draws out several common themes, migrations; the Serbs' relations with neighbouring empires and peoples; Serbia as a society formed in the imperial borderlands; and the polycentricity of Serbia. The volume also highlights the surprising vitality of Serb identity, and how it has survived in different incarnations over the centuries through reinvention.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

582 pages, Paperback

Published January 26, 2023

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

[Erik Champenois · Rating 5 out of 5]

Apparently the longest of the "Concise History" series, "A Concise History of Serbia" is also one of the best book in the series (in part because of it being the longest!). It covers the medieval and early modern/modern periods more evenly than other books in the series, which is particularly important given how dynamic the history of medieval Serbia really was (sadly, I'm having a hard time finding a book that does medieval Bulgaria justice) and how important older history is to understanding more recent events.

Mildly pro-Serbian but not excessively so, Djokić covers the history of Serbia in relationship to its neighbors, including the Byzantines, the Ottomans, the Croats, and the Bosnians. It also touches on cultural aspects (especially in the more modern history). Importantly, the book helps to explains how, in spite of the 1990s wars, Serbians see themselves as victims - because, for much of their history, they actually were - from the Ottoman period, the 1800 uprisings against the Ottomans, the World War II Ustaše atrocities, etc.

I've recently read three books about three of the former Yugoslav countries - Croatia, Bosnia, and Serbia - and this was the best of them all (though, best of all was really reading all three books together). One of the things I appreciated about this book was how it made Yugoslavism (South Slavism) make more sense. As the author explains it, the Germans and the Italians both united into one nation, so it wasn't a stretch to think that the Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians (who all speak more or less the same language, though they might not all see it that way) could do so too. And indeed they did.

The one aspect of Serbian and Yugoslav history I would have wished for better coverage of was the reasons why Yugoslavia fell apart. There is no real analysis of this other than the history of the events, the author instead referring to the literature on this question in a footnote on page 478. Obviously, one can come away with some tentative conclusions based on the history provided, but it would have been nice to have had more analysis on this question. How exactly did the confluence of different factors - the contest between elites within a federal system, the historical memory of atrocities, the evolution of constitutional structures, the importance of ethnic and religious identities, the weaknesses of communism, the ideology of nationalism, the international and European state system, and perhaps other factors not mentioned here - lead to Yugoslavism being unsuccessful rather than something that endured? Perhaps it was the more multinational (contra unitary) nature of Yugoslavism in an age of nation-states that made its breakup most possible, but that is a partial and tentative conclusion only and one that I would like to revisit in the future.

(P.S. Or maybe the question should be flipped - instead of, why did Yugoslavia disintegrate, what was it about the origins of Yugoslavism that made it different from the origins of German and Italian nationalisms? And did that difference/those differences make the disintegration of Yugoslavia more likely? Yugoslavia was, after all, created by different peoples more voluntarily than Germany or Italy were. Perhaps unification by domination + less ethnic and religious diversity + more unitary governance vs. more voluntary federalism by different actors made the difference...).

[Sarah Sulick · Rating 5 out of 5]

extremely well written and unbiased history of Serbia

I really enjoyed this volume. I knew very little about medieval Serbia and that was the main reason for buying this book. I wish the First World War were covered in more detail. So much is said about Serbia that is either paranoid (by many Serbs) or simply lacking its kunderstanding (by many foreigners). This brilliant book avoids both traps through a well-documented and unbiased erudition and extensive references.

[BG · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a liberal Serb intellectual living in the West, Djokic had a historic chance when writing this book. He could have used the opportunity to debunk many myths of the conventional Serb historiography and try to set the Serb people free of the medieval cage that their intelligentsia have put them in. Instead, this is at best a glorifying account and at worst an apologist work. Liberal democracy cannot spring in a society that actively spews hate against all things non-Serb in the region. A proper historical discussion would go a long way, at least for the liberal minded urbanites. It is only when the Serb people will understand the myths surrounding their identity that a durable peace in the region is possible. Djokic could be an enabler of that, instead he wrote a book that portrays those myths as true, despite some shortcomings.

[Nikita Vasilev · Rating 5 out of 5]

My understanding of Serbian history originated only from Russian history, so before reading this book I had a white spot on my mental historical world map where Serbia should be.
This book brilliantly touches rich (I didn't know that before) chronicles of Serbian people and the author manages to stay emotionless in the storm surrounding histories of post-Yugoslavian countries.
The only time i felt like emotions are exceeding is description of events of Kosovo conflict, might be just my feeling.
Despite putting Serbia on my mental map, I still have blind spots on its neighbours' history which i find as an advantage as Dejan Djokić leaves place for those neighbours to implement their chronicles into canvas created by him. Even Montenegro and Macedonia are barely touched which are considered "wrong Serbs' lands" by Greater Serbia ultranationalists.
P.S. I found that the weakest spots of the book is Petar I Karadjordjević rule and Tito's policy. The 20th century in general is the moment where I began to understand why the book is called "A Concise History...".