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Summary: I have been to Bosnia too
Review: I have been to Bosnia as well. I HIGHLY recommend this book to people who seek to understand this country's war. I think Peter Maass did an excellent job of showing the deception that the American public was given concerning the war in Bosnia and of the true role the US played in Bosnia. Most americans do not understand that role and they should read Peter's book to gain a better and further understanding. I have spoken to many Bosnians, Serbs and Croats personally about how they felt about each other before the war and they responded to me "We did not think a war in Bosnia was possible because we lived together...inter-married with each other and went to school together" I think Peter Maass received some kind of prestigious award for this book and he certainly deserves the award he got. When I was in Bosnia I had the misfortune of having to do some dirty work of recovering remains from mass graves. It is sad that the world turned a blind eye towards this repeat of history. This says something about our society and it shows that we must seek to further understand why we as people allow such planned programs of mass exterminations to take place and why the rest of the world can easily turn a blind eye to it. Me personally...words cannot describe my utter disgust for Clinton and Peter Maass's book will help us to understand ourselves much better.
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Summary: Prejudice & political expediency in Bosnia. Compelling.
Review: I suppose it's hard not to become cynical after reading this
riveting account of the Bosnian/Serb/Croat conflict...
but don't let that stop you. For those who love politics but
stopped reading all the news stories about Bosnia because
it was just too confusing, give this book a read. You'll finally understand who the bad guys were (and are).
It's a very personal, informed and well-written
account from a world-class journalist. Read it.
Rating:
Summary: A sad and confusing - but accurate - depiction of war
Review: I survived the siege of Sarajevo, and since arriving in America I have read many books in hopes I could find one which comes close to depicting what it was really like. Maass does an amazing job in capturing the insanity and horrors of the war in Bosnia, keenly using both necessary historical perspective and in-the-moment confusion to relate his tale and the tales of war's victims. As a Bosnian, this is the book I would recommend to any American wanting to understand recent events in the Balkans.
Rating:
Summary: A startling and intelligent account of a modern day horror
Review: I was quite ignorant of the details surrounding the Bosnian conflict. After reading "Love Thy Neighbor", I was shocked at what was happening to those people and embarrased that my country and myself allowed it to happen. It completely destroys the idea that Nazi Germany will never happen again. It did in the 90's. This is a well written book that gives us enough details without being exploitative
Rating: 
Summary: Maass writes like a college freshman
Review: I was very disappointed by this book, as the reviews were quite good. Maass oversimplifies everything and his writing lacks both context and continuity. If you aren't interested in understanding what happened or why, read this book. If you want to have an understanding of the conflict, look elsewhere. Maass's book is a memoir of his experiences during the war, providing juicy bits of grotesque imagery- but no substantive analysis.
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Summary: An Unforgettable Accounting of the Serb Invasion of Bosnia
Review: I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the modern Balkans, particularly the Serb aggression that began with the rise of Milosevic in the late 80's.Love They Neighbor is a telling of Serbia's horrific war against Bosnia and Bosnia's Muslim population as seen firsthand by Mass while he was there. Maass begins this book with a journalistic attempt to remain impartial and simply tell what he sees, however, it soon becomes clear to him that the Serbs are the aggressors and the horror the Serbs are perpetrating against their Balkan brothers and sisters is something not seen since Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot. This book is not an impartial accounting of what was going on; it is an accounting of the atrocities that were perpetrated by the Serbs and tolerated by the West. In my opinion, the best part of the book was Maass's detailing of how first the Bush administration and then the Clinton administration failed to take relatively easy measures to end the aggression. Maass also details how the U.N., instead of helping protect those being slaughtered actually implemented policies that helped the Serbs carry out their terror and ethnic cleansing. Maass tells the truth in this book, but the fact is telling the truth, in this case, can not leave one impartial. Maass also explains thing that our cookie cutter modern new services do not explain; like how the Muslim's the Serbs were persecuting were not any more religiously extremist that your average American. One interesting moment Maass notes is when Clinton is dedicating the Holocaust museum, stating that the museum is a reminder that we can't let this happen again, while his administration, NATO, and the U.N. were actively letting it happen again. I would recommend this book to anyone seeking to learn about recent events in the Balkans. While not an academic work, it is well-written and lends much insight into the failure of the West in quickly ending what would have been easily stoppable had they made the effort. I would also recommend this book to readers of Robert Young Pelton. If you take out the political commentary, one could easily see Pelton writing similar things about many of the situations that Maass experienced.
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Summary: Great Work
Review: In the aftermath of the war in the Balkans, it became quite a "fashion" to be reading about the Bosnian war and it seemed like alot of people started writing about the history, politics and cultural background of an area that was largely neglected before. Peter Maass' book could easily have been another telling from a Western journalist's/ politician's mistaken perpective, where they accuse the Yugoslav -- Muslims, Serbs, Croats and everyone of having been fighting and killing each other from day one. Instead, he has a produced one of the best personal accounts of the Bosnian conflict. Rather than confronting the issue in a me vs. them scenario, Maass crosses the line and tries to identify with them, the victims of conflict, and an indifferent international community. Maass sets a background for readers who have zero knowledge on the war or countries involved and his strong, frustrated, bitter and angry voice moves readers to the suffering that went on in the region known as the Powder Keg. A phenomenal book on a complex situation, Maass has done justice to the countless nameless people who were affected by the war by bringing their story to the surface and telling the truth as he saw and experienced it.
Rating: 
Summary: A compelling account of Bosnia flawed by a lack of analysis
Review: Maass provides a vivid and brutal picture of the realities of everyday life during the Bosnian conflict. On the experience of being a war correspondent, and in portraying the suffering of the victims, he is outstanding. However, the book fails to present any serious account of the causes of the war, and seems to lack an understanding of the religious and historical realities of the region surprising in someone so fond of Rebecca West's masterpiece, "Black Lamb & Grey Falcon." Maass is fond of making the point that England and France have a traditional historical emnity, and comparing this to the hatred between the Bosnians and Serbs. This seems to miss a few basic realities, such as the fact that the Anglo/French dislike has never involved (at least for the last five hundred years or so) systematic brutalisation and ethnic hatred on a Balkan scale. Maass also seems a little too blindly anti-Serbian, and to believe, oddly, that US military intervention would have been a panacea for the region. Also, while it raises important questions about the realities of evil and the breakdown of society, it fails to present any real answers to these questions, instead escaping into banalities. Ultimately, a well-written, important book that fails because it is a deeply American account of what is a European tragedy.
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Summary: To the writer of the book "Love Thy Neighbor", Peter Maass.
Review: May 5th 1999 - One surviver of Bosnian war - I read this book six months ago, and gave it to my friends who are from the same city in Bosnia as I am. I survived a part of Bosnian hell and will never forget it. The book gave me a beautiful feeling that there were people who cared about Bosnians during the war and did their best to inform the world about the horror which was happening there. The book is honest and I couldn't believe somebody has written it in the same way I would do it. I would like to thank Peter Maass from the depth of my heart and wish there were more people in this world who really care about our planet.
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Summary: Excellent.......former UN Peacekeeper in Bosnia
Review: Mr. Maass writes an excellent book. simply excellent. He documents his time in the insane asylum that we called Bosnia in the early 90's. His writing is exceptional and the stories he tells are heartbreaking. Great books are either average writers who witness extrodinary events or extrodinary writers who witness average events. Maass is an extrodinary writer in an extrodinary situation. This is the best book I have ever read of the Bosnian fiasco. As a former UN Peacekeeper it brought back old shivers and memories. Like anything people can read a bias or a slant into things, but Maass has truly captured the whole debacle in one book. The blame side of it Maass points the fingers at those inside the country who helped destablize it, the various diaspora who essentially bankrolled it, the politicians who encouraged it, the non-Yugoslav politicians who just ignored it and hoped it went away. An awesome read, not a boring blow by blow historical analysis but a look at the people caught in the worst atrocities in Europe in 50 years
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