Rating: 
Summary: Despicable.
Review: The predictability with which American media and publishing conglomerates jump on the bandwagon of the latest government propaganda line is truly astounding. Now comes Mr. Judah, and what he says about Serbian Orthodoxy -- which is identical to the Faith of the Russians, Ukrainians, Greeks, Rumanians, Bulgarians, _et al._ -- is particularly galling. If anyone in American publishing or academia said about Judaism, Roman Catholicism, or Islam the kind of things Judah says about Orthodoxy, he would be ... well, let's ask Rushdie. (I note that when President Clinton decided to side with the Islamo-Bosnians against the Bosnian Serbs, there were no travel warnings in American airports and no calls to close yet more streets in Washington to insure his safety. What if Clinton had come down _against_ Islam?)Judah's grasp of the history of Christianity is nearly non-existent. Yes, the Serbian Orthodox Church teaches that things were better when the kings were saints and not Communists. Are they wrong, Judah? St. Savva, the leading Serbian Orthodox saint, comes in for extensive criticism here. Why? He gave up his throne for a monastery. Horrible, unacceptable. He should have put all the money he poured into monasteries into a great Ponzi scheme for the elderly, right? Perhaps sent soldiers to conquer Vietnam? We "know" that Orthodoxy is horrible, says Judah, because the Orthodox stand, not sit, in their worship services. This is quite a high level of analysis. If Mr. Judah had bothered to look into the question why the Orthodox do not behave as Protestants in Liturgy, he would have found answers all around; any introductory book on Orthodoxy would answer the question. Easier not to know, I guess. Truly, this book is infuriating. Truckling to the government line, it seems, is very "brave." Did Judah perhaps receive a subvention from the Turks and Iranians, as the Serbs' other enemies did? Or is he a "Christomachos," as the Fathers said?
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent read!
Review: This book FINALLY shows the true story! There have been a large number of books written on the former Yugoslavia but this one is by far the best! You will get ALL the information you ever wanted to know!
Rating: 
Summary: Those Serbs!
Review: This book has taken a beating from some reviewers, and for good reason. Appearing at a time when the mere word "Serbs" was synonomous with "Nazi" in the media, the book poses itself as a fair look at this nationality. Once again we have a slanted book depicting Serbs in a less than favorable light. Once again, the Serbs are strictly the bad guys of the Balkan Wars through and through, and the actions of their neighbors are not afforded a similar taint. And, of course, we go through nationalism, treated like a poisonous word. An inevitable outcome of the fall of Communist Yugoslavia, nationalism was the most readily available tool politicians could use to move and shake the country. Of course it didn't move and shake in the right direction all the time, but nationalism is not the poison, per se. Go and find me a more nationalistic country than the USA for starters. The book did not appear in time to cover the Kosovo war, but Judah would approach this topic with another book entitled, oddly enough, Kosovo. It's a better bit of work than this book, which is packed full of information as Judah struggles to run through an entire people from beginning to end, stringing selective facts to hammer home a point Judah had long before he penned this, which is to confirm that the Serbs are misguided, and are, in fact, the bad guys. Naturally, ancient history and myths are given mighty weight as reasons behind the quest for a
Greater Serbia. Trying to hold on to provinces like Kosovo are not part of some Greater Serbia pipe dream. Imagine a Mexican-dominated southern state trying to secede in the future. And as one reviewer has pointed out, one of the most offensive bits is the real working over that Judah gives Orthodox Christianity. I'd like to see Judaism or Islam put through such a ringer, with major figures undermined and traditions marked as bizarre and strange. Real nice. All three major Balkan leaders of the 1990s should share some blame for the carnage of those wars, but it's only the pesty Milosevic who gets the brunt of it. Thankfully, enough time has passed for a wider array of accounts to appear on the Serbs and the Balkan Wars. Judah bites off quite a bit, but it's clear that he's already decided how to digest it.
Rating:
Summary: Those Serbs!
Review: This book has taken a beating from some reviewers, and for good reason. Appearing at a time when the mere word "Serbs" was synonomous with "Nazi" in the media, the book poses itself as a fair look at this nationality. Once again we have a slanted book depicting Serbs in a less than favorable light. Once again, the Serbs are strictly the bad guys of the Balkan Wars through and through, and the actions of their neighbors are not afforded a similar taint. And, of course, we go through nationalism, treated like a poisonous word. An inevitable outcome of the fall of Communist Yugoslavia, nationalism was the most readily available tool politicians could use to move and shake the country. Of course it didn't move and shake in the right direction all the time, but nationalism is not the poison, per se. Go and find me a more nationalistic country than the USA for starters. The book did not appear in time to cover the Kosovo war, but Judah would approach this topic with another book entitled, oddly enough, Kosovo. It's a better bit of work than this book, which is packed full of information as Judah struggles to run through an entire people from beginning to end, stringing selective facts to hammer home a point Judah had long before he penned this, which is to confirm that the Serbs are misguided, and are, in fact, the bad guys. Naturally, ancient history and myths are given mighty weight as reasons behind the quest for a
Greater Serbia. Trying to hold on to provinces like Kosovo are not part of some Greater Serbia pipe dream. Imagine a Mexican-dominated southern state trying to secede in the future. And as one reviewer has pointed out, one of the most offensive bits is the real working over that Judah gives Orthodox Christianity. I'd like to see Judaism or Islam put through such a ringer, with major figures undermined and traditions marked as bizarre and strange. Real nice. All three major Balkan leaders of the 1990s should share some blame for the carnage of those wars, but it's only the pesty Milosevic who gets the brunt of it. Thankfully, enough time has passed for a wider array of accounts to appear on the Serbs and the Balkan Wars. Judah bites off quite a bit, but it's clear that he's already decided how to digest it.
Rating: 
Summary: NOTHING NEW HERE
Review: This is good book. But I do not really understand all the talk about this book being a remedy for all that came before, that gives 'human faces' to the Serbs. That remedies the Black & White version of the CNN. Anyone who watches CNN has problems anyway which one book is not going to remedy. But lets face it Judah's book really says that the Serbs are inherently manipulable because they are high on the psychological opium of their own history. They will commit any act to create a greater Serbia, but will run for cover whenever they are faced with organised resistance; ie. Krajina and Kosovo. But more than this, they are incapable of rising up and becoming anything like a normal state also because of their history and tolerance for false icons in the Serbian orthodox church. For anyone who listens to real media (BBC, CBC) or reads real media (The Guardian, The NY Times, The Globe & Mail, Le Monde)Judah's conclusions will come as no surprise. We all knew about the real mentality of the Serbs all along.
Rating:
Summary: Terrible, non-educational Serb-bashing
Review: This is non-objective, anti-Serbian propaganda. The readers who are truly interested in a non-bias evaluation of the history of the Balkans in general and Serbian history in particular should not waste their time reading this piece of garbage.
Rating:
Summary: Good history of the Serbs
Review: This remarkable book traces the history of the Serbian people since the Middle Ages. The Balkan peoples were unfortunate enough to be on the fault line between two empires. The Military Frontier between Austria and Turkey also divided two faiths, Catholic and Islam. Just as volcanoes erupt where tectonic plates grind together, so wars are generated by the clash of empires, and the struggles of the peoples there for national liberation. The Serbs fought for their national liberation from Ottoman rule until they won their independence. But when Judah comes to the 20th century, his book mirrors the Serbs' history all too faithfully. Like them, he underestimates the role of economic forces and overestimates the role of a narrowly nationalist ideology. His is a political history in the narrow sense: he blames the start of the war on Serbia's bad leaders. He does not mention the roles of supranational organisations like the European Union and the International Monetary Fund in fomenting the war. Tito's Government foolishly borrowed heavily from Western banks: by the 1980s, Yugoslavia had more debt relative to income than any country in Europe. In 1983, Yugoslavia allowed the IMFto slash social services and programmes of regional redistribution. The standard of living plummeted, and unemployment soared to 50% in Kosovo and to over 20% in Serbia, Bosnia, Montenegro and Macedonia. In 1989, wages were cut by 20% and gross national product fell by 8.5%. In 1935, Stalin and the Comintern had advocated Yugoslavian unity and said that the party should openly oppose separatism. Rejecting this advice, Tito created a federal Constitution; later, he gave the republics increased doses of autonomy. This rolling devolution played into the hands of the separatists, who put presumed local interests before the interests of the country as a whole. Judah writes, "The west had turned a blind eye to the arming of Croatia and actively encouraged the clandestine arming of Bosnia, both in contravention of the UN arms embargo on former Yugoslavia. Retired American officers, with official US backing, had also been training the Croatian Army." Warren Christopher, the US Secretary of State, admitted later about the Croatian attack on Krajina, "We did not think that kind of attack could do anything other than create a lot of refugees and cause a humanitarian problem. On the other hand, it always had the prospect of simplifying matters." Since the collapse of the USSR, we see global capitalism seeking to deny the sovereignty of every established state so that on any pretext it can send in troops and attempt to overthrow governments or impose its own, usually under the cover of some supranational body such as the UN, NATO or the EU. "Humanitarianism' is invoked against humanity. Such is the content of the USA's 'New World Order'. In every country, the proletariat must assert sovereignty against global capitalism. The people of Yugoslavia must take responsibility for rebuilding their country.
Rating: 
Summary: Tim Judah Looks at Serbia
Review: Tim Judah is a journalist who has lived in Yugoslavia and has had plenty of time to observe that country's disintegration and the subsequent wars in Croatia and Bosnia. This book is his attempt to explain why these wars took place and what the results were to both Serbia and the rest of the former Yugoslavia. I was a bit intimidated at first by this book. I've taken a class on Balkan history (which wasn't very good) but didn't think I was well prepared to dive into dense explanations of Serbian history. I'm much more familiar with Albanian history, which does overlap with Serb history somewhat, but not enough to make me an expert on Yugoslavia. I had no need to worry, as Mr. Judah made this book easy to follow. He keeps the information flowing and only focuses on major figures, which helps keep events in perspective. I would expect that even someone with zero knowledge of the region would be able to keep pace with this book. Judah's main argument is that the wars in fractured Yugoslavia aren't due exclusively to nationalism, but mostly to greedy, powerful politicians that are exploiting the Serbian people to make themselves wealthy. Judah does acknowledge that the Serbian people have a long history of nationalistic tendencies, and he explains this tendency in some detail in the first part of the book. This nationalism was carried down through time by the Serbian Orthodox Church,which acted as both a preserver of culture and a bulwark during the long occupation of Serbia by the Ottoman Turks. Judah also shows how Serbian epic poetry that retold the tales of Serb martyrs Milos Obilic and Prince Lazar reinforced the idea of the Serbian people as victims who would one day receive their just rewards. Politicians such as Slobodan Milosevic and Radovan Karadzic used this victimhood to launch wars against Croatia and Bosnia. Behind the scenes, politicians, in league with mafia-type gangs, were looting the country. Judah even reveals that some Serb military officers were selling weapons to the enemy during these fierce wars. Judah is at his best when he is describing the Bosnian Serb government in Pale during the Bosnian war. He shows how ineffective they were in conducting a war, and also how corrupt they were. He also exposes the atrocities that were committed by Serbian militias that detained Muslims in camps and carried out mass executions. I had several problems with this book. First, Judah has a definite bias against the Serbs. Judah sees the Serbs as the major destructive force behind all of the conflicts in the region. But the Serbs weren't operating in a vacuum. Croatians and Muslims also committed atrocities and should be held in equal contempt if one wants to start throwing human rights charges about. Also, Mr. Judah doesn't seem to grasp the concept of war very well. War is an ugly thing, and atrocities are always committed by everyone involved. That's why it's called war. Also, war profiteering always occurs during a conflict. The Serbs by no means have a lock on this particular bit of unpleasant behavior. To try and paint them as such is irreponsible, in my opinion. Also, Judah heaps much scorn on Sonja Karadzic. Judah says that she hurt the Bosnian Serb cause by refusing journalists access to areas the journalists wanted to see. This is an error. Sonja didn't hurt the cause. The journalists did. This is a standard media trick. When the media doesn't get what they want, they throw a fit and the next thing you know, they start smearing people. In the final analysis, it's important to remember that the vast majority of Serbs only want to live and raise their families like everyone else. If anything, Judah proves the old truth that it is always politicians that start wars, and it is the people who suffer from them. Finally, I wish this book had better maps! The ones that are included aren't sufficient. Hopefully, future reprints will repair this deficiency. I really shouldn't bash the book too much, though. It inspired me enough to go out and by a biography on Tito. I'd also like to read Judah's book on Kosova. I recommend this book for its reader friendly, if somewhat misguided, introduction to Serbia and her wonderful people.
Rating:
Summary: Atrocious slanting of the facts
Review: Tim Judah seems to have some deep-seeded resentment of the Serbs. All the so-called "facts" presented in this book are twisted and peppered with his own personal distortion of the truth. Not only, but he also contradicts events which have been described by noted authorities involved in the various situations that he describes here. The worst of it is that his writing espouses a style that convinces the reader of his point of view, with very few facts or dim allusions to having obtained information from reliable sources. I find this author not at all objective, and wonder if somewhere in his past he doesn't have some kind of skeletons in his closet which would make him so despise a nationality. I would suggest to potential readers that time with this book is not at all well spent, and Tim Judah's otherwise impressive credentials defy the sensationalist nature of this work.
Rating:
Summary: Wow!
Review: Who are the Serbs? Following the highly destructive warfare that obliterated the complex, multiethnic country of Yugoslavia beginning in 1991, they are now a pariah, no matter how much policy makers deny this fact. The human tendency for utter destructiveness - vastly documented in the history of the Second World War - was shown in this decade-long episode of recent history, almost as if history itself was being repeated. Tim Judah, in this superb and phenomenal book, has documented history, current events, biography and brilliant writing to paint a picture of the Serbs, who are human beings like us all. The book draws upon the existing vast historiography and Judah's own experiences and interviews that he recorded and collected during his time throughout the former Yugoslavia. He reported for several leading Western newspapers, such as the London Times, The Economist, The Sunday Telegraph, The Guardian, and most notably the New York Review of Books, where he covered the war in Kosovo. He continues to appear on panel discussions, interviews and his opinion is consulted whenever something significant takes place in the current rump Yugoslavia of Serbia and Montenegro. Judah speaks Serbo-Croat and Albanian, among other languages, which gives him a tremendous advantage; several books cited in the Bibliography are in the original language. Additionally, he has cited Italian and French works on the history of the Balkan region. The current book was first published in 1997 following the war in Bosnia. It was completely revised in 2000 with an additional chapter to cover the events of the Kosovo war (1998-). The book is divided into seventeen chapters, the first eight of which are historical; the remaining seven plunge into current events and details of the Balkan wars, most especially the political scene in Belgrade, background to key personalities behind the bloodshed, the conditions on the fronts, and the experiences of ordinary civilians on all sides. To prove the extent to which Serb nationalist leaders were able to draw upon a tumultuous history of the Serbs in order to win favor over the masses, Judah condenses the history of the Serbs, from medieval times to the fall of Josip Broz "Tito," the Yugoslav leader that ruled the country for over three decades following the Second World War. Judah examines the highlights of Serb history (which would later be rekindled by nationalists in the late 20th century), particularly the details surrounding the Battle of Kosovo, in June 1389, when Serb forces under Tsar Lazar were defeated by Muslim Turk forces, thus ensuring nearly four hundred years of domination by the Ottoman Empire (pp. 29-47). Tim Judah's thesis is that politics and politicians instigated the destruction of Yugoslavia, but that nationalist politicians could not have come to power to instigate their harm had there not been a tumultuous history to which they could have turned and manipulated, thereby grossly misleading the Serbs while embarking on a horrific war path. By discussing the history of the Serbs, particularly those episodes drawn on by these nationalists and propagandists, Judah puts the conflicts into context, showing how easy it was to fall into war with rampant emotions and a nationalist fervor. Judah is a phenomenal writer; his is the work of the professional journalist, reporting events as they happen. The transition from history to current events however, which takes place between Chapters 8 and 9, is fast and abrupt. The reader for one moment is reading about Titoist Yugoslavia, when in the next moment they find themselves reading of the early years of Slobodan Milosevic and his rise to power in 1987. Although Judah commendably knows his history and the personalities of his subjects, he occasionally writes far too much in a sentence, something of which could be slightly overwhelming for the average reader. All the same, he does a terrific job in synthesizing the massive and complex history of the Serbs into little more than one hundred pages, a history in which volumes upon volumes and thousands of pages could have been written. Most certainly, this book is essential for those that wish to gain a perspective on the situation in the former and current Yugoslavia; it beats sole press reports! Looking at some reviews posted on online bookshops, one finds that Judah is often accused of being highly critical of the Serbs, that his judgments are extreme, and that he does not examine in sufficient detail the roles of other non-Serb nationalists who played an active and important role in the destruction of Yugoslavia. Judah himself noted in his Introduction that the Serbs were under the (common) false accusation that they are the "chief villains" in the conflicts. There is a difference between cliché and truth, but clichés are always born of some sort of truth. The Serbs are by no means any different from other people, and they are not the sole "villains" in the wars, but their politicians were most certainly the aggressors. If Milosevic had not assumed power, the history of Yugoslavia would have taken a much different turn; sadly, he epitomized the worst extreme and did the most to destroy the country, and it was his people that, in euphoria, rallied behind him. In addition, Judah's book is about the Serbs. Perhaps if it were about all the ethnic groups in the former Yugoslavia, then perhaps these accusations of not pointing fingers at enough criminals would be non-existent. Judah's account is very objective, though his contempt for the highly cynical leaders and attitudes taken in the wars is evident. He has described these to be "stupid." This book is essential reading, as is Judah's most recent book on the Kosovo conflict, now a companion volume to this current book. Quite simply, these two books are the most important that I have ever read.
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