Rating: 
Summary: Eastern Europe Lover
Review: Absolutely stunning. This book is a must for anyone who is interested in the Balkans. Mishy Glenny's account of this last decade was captivating from beginning to end, (despite the small print). I would describe it as a real eyeopener for someone who's only familiarity with this area was the second world war and what the media told us during the 90's.
Rating:
Summary: An Exellent Travel Guide to the Threshold of War
Review: Glenny's book is a detailed guide to the places and people in dynamic conflict at the beginning of the "Third Balkan War". From Milan Babic and his hate-crazed Serb followers in the Krajina, to the March 1991 opposition rally in the streets of Belgrade, to the appalling destruction of Vukovar and Mostar, Glenny focuses on the personalities of the leaders and the people who trapped themselves in a cynical and inevitable march towards self-destruction. Greedy, corrupt leaders vaulted to the fore by tapping into a subconscious vein of popular nationalism. They were followed over the edge by unthinking adherents characterized by a uniquely Balkan combination of ruthlessness, self-righteousness, and utter inhumanity. It is good to ride with Glenny as he travels through a country in the process of explosive suicide if only to remind ourselves that even in Europe civilization is but a thin facade masking deep hatreds and combustive violence.Glenny's central thesis, that Serb hegemony over Croats in a united Yugoslavia and Croat hegemony over Serbs in an independent Croatia will always lead to tensions is incontrovertible. His corollary, that wicked self-serving leaders are able to exploit these tensions and turn them to violence in the absence of a reasoned political debate and vigorous interest by the international communtiy, is an indictment of the Slavs' chronic inability to compromise. Could Yugoslavia have split up peacefully? Probably, but not after popular elections gave power to leaders such as Tudjman and Milosevic. It is a fantastical jump to posit that Yugoslavs could have engaged in a peaceful separation on the Czech/Slovak model, because the first criterion for such a process is enlightened leadership in Zagreb and Belgrade. This does not exist. There was nothing inevitable about the Third Balkan War, we all saw it coming like a train wreck and it happened all the same. Glenny's first-hand account written in an engaging prose that combines journalism and historical analysis is an excellent guide to these tragic events.
Rating: 
Summary: THE authoritative work on the wars in the former Yugoslavia
Review: Glenny's book is THE authoritative work on the civil war in the former Yugoslavia. Having read the book over 5 years ago, I still see some of the things he described in the book as a valuable prediction of the events that are currently taking place in the Balkans. It was Glenny who, writing about Centrex in 1995, anticipated the deep divide in the Republika Srpska leadership that would take place in 1997 (and continue until today) over war profiteering. It was Glenny who, writing about his visit to Kosovo in the early '90s, correctly anticipated the horrific showdown of international proportions that would occur there in the late '90s. And it was Glenny who, writing about FYROM, probably has predicted the next Balkan flashpoint. This book is a definite MUST READ for any person seeking to understand the intricate historical animosities that pervade the Balkans and continue, to date, to influence the lives of the people of Central and Southeastern Europe.
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Summary: Destroying a multinational State
Review: I must say that the author's analysis is brilliant as far as the political situation is concerned, covering with detail the period from the independence of Slovenia in 1991 to the Dayton agreements in 1995, and enriching the essay with abundant geographical information, which is absolutely necessary to explain such a complex multinational State, with an enormous variety of ethnic groups that formed Tito's Yugoslavia. The author's point of view is incredibly cold as must be one who describes and tells; therefore, I can't doubt Misha Glenny's impartiality, which is extremely difficult when you may not resist the temptation to choose one of the sides in conflict. The truth is that, despite lots of propaganda, Yugoslavia was destroyed not only by the Serbs, but also by the means of the Croats and the Bosnian Muslims. The problem was that the Muslims were the weakest part, so they suffered the most, while the Serbs applied force to keep at first the integrity of the country and next to create their own Great Serbia, and the Croats, as guilty as the Serbs on committing war crimes and ethnic cleansing, built their own State sacrificing the unity of Yugoslavia. About Eslovenia, it left the federation almost unnoticed, almost without noise, but from some JNA commanders' opinions, letting Slovenia go was the fatal error which led to the Serb-croat war and the destruction and split in two States of Bosnia-Hercegovina. In the book the author says that the Serbs feared that the creation of an independent Croatia would arise Germany's Fourth Reich, and that Serbs thought president Tudjman was the German's puppet, to draw the conclusion that this fear was utterly abdurd and preposterous. Well, for me it's not preposterous at all, because Germany had created in the IIWW a puppet State, that is, Croatia ustasha regime, a terrorist country which was guilty of exterminating thousands and thousand of Serbs, Jews and other Slavic minorities during the war. The Serbs simply didn't want this to repeat again. By the way, to know more about the ustasha puppet fascist State and the responsibility of the Catholic hierarchy in Croatia and the Holy See in the war's atrocities, I highly recommend Richard West's "Tito and the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia". Besides, Slovenia and Croatia wouldn't have declared their independence breaking the Constitution of 1974 and the unity of the country hadn't been for the strong support of Germany and Austria. Particularly Germany pressed the European Economic Community to accept the secession as a consumate fact and recognize both countries, and this recognition opened them the UN recognition worldwide, in what has been from my point of view an enormous irresponsibility which pushed yugoslavia into a civil war. Correcting Misha Glenny's words, it's not a Balkan war but a civil war, which means that brother fought brother and neighbour killed neighbour in every village, particularly awful in Bosnia-Hercegovina. Now I want to show, from my opinion, the book's weak points: a) The lack of a previous analysis of Tito's Yugoslav institutions, society and economic situation, basical to understand what befell Yugoslavia after Tito's death in 1980. b) The lack of a detailed and deep account of military operations, the JNA structure, command , aims and forces before and during the war, as well as the role played by such important figures as generals Adzic, Kadijevic, Negovanovic, Mladic, Milovanovic, Mrksic, Panic and Perisic. c) The construction and development of Srpska Republic is overviewed, and it's necessary a deeper study of the Serbian Republic of Bosnia. However, the book is a splendid historical essay, a masterpiece of knowledge which will no doubt fulfill the needs of anyone interested in knowing much more than what the mass media news broadcast constantly about the former Yugoslav ethnic groups, how all this hatred began. But... how will it end? The Balkans haven't written their last historical page yet.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a good book...at all
Review: I was looking for an overview of the balkan conflict. This book does not offer that. It does not give someone without a great deal of prior knowledge a good historical reference for what led to war. I feel like the author of this book assumes the reader is extremely familiar with the conflict and decided to write a book sharing some of his personal experiences that coincided with major events in the conflict. The chapters severely lack coordination. As somebody else mentions it goes into way too much detail about insignificant figures. I also purchased "Yugoslavia, Death of a Nation". Though I've only finished the introduction and first chapter I already feel like I've learned more than after completion of "The Fall of Yugoslavia". Maybe after completing "Death of a Nation" going back through "The Fall of Yugoslavia" might be interesting, doubt it though...
Rating:
Summary: Not a good book...at all
Review: I was looking for an overview of the balkan conflict. This book does not offer that. It does not give someone without a great deal of prior knowledge a good historical reference for what led to war. I feel like the author of this book assumes the reader is extremely familiar with the conflict and decided to write a book sharing some of his personal experiences that coincided with major events in the conflict. The chapters severely lack coordination. As somebody else mentions it goes into way too much detail about insignificant figures. I also purchased "Yugoslavia, Death of a Nation". Though I've only finished the introduction and first chapter I already feel like I've learned more than after completion of "The Fall of Yugoslavia". Maybe after completing "Death of a Nation" going back through "The Fall of Yugoslavia" might be interesting, doubt it though...
Rating:
Summary: Highly involving and impartial
Review: Maddeningly disjointed and disorienting. I turned to this book as to a celebrated tutor, wanting Glenny to make straight the crooked paths of Yugoslavian history. Instead, I jogged along mountain roads to which only Glenny had the map, hearing "snatches of dispatches." Clearly, Glenny possesses a wealth of knowledge about his subject -- but so does the graduate assistant in physics who offers to "clear up a few things," then fills the chalkboard with gibberish, leaving you more confused than when the class began. Shame on the editors of this book for failing to package it in a readable form. What could have genuinely been the answer to thousands of readers' concern about this subject remains a hopeless muddle, a stream-of-consciousness hodgepodge. (For instant relief, turn to Christiane Amanpour's masterful video documentary, Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation.)
Rating:
Summary: Highly involving and impartial
Review: Misha Glenny is an expert on the wars in ex-Jugoslavia. An Englishman, and a speaker of Serbo-croat, Glenny takes his reader through the mess that was the Yugoslav civil war, with eyewitness accounts that display both humanity and at other times extreme brutality. One thing in particular I must commend Glenny on is his refusal to classify the Serbs as the only bad guys, or the only instigators of the war (as much Western media has done). He places blame on various players: Milosevic, Serb paramilitaries, Bosnian politicians, Franjo Tudman and his nationalitic cronies, Germany, etc... This book invokes great sympathy in its readers for all the victims of the war:Muslims, Yugoslavs, Serbs, and Croats. He usually carefully distinguishes between the Serb-dominated Yugoslav Army and the nationalistic Serb new-Chetnik gangs who were the primary brutes involved in civilian atrocities; an important distinction. However, if you do not already have a general knowledge of the region's history, this book may at times be a bit confusing. Although many of his statements on Kosovo are innacurate, I don't find that to be highly relevant to the overall book. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Expertly Conveys Eerie Sense of Being Witness to Disaster
Review: Misha Glenny, a longtime observer of matters Balkan who is blessed with knbowledge of the local languages, has written this impressionistic yet brilliant portrayal of the beginning of the Yugoslav crisis in the early 1990s. Critics of "The Fall of Yugoslavia" shoot at this book due to the fact that it is opinionated, and that it does not focus on the entire period. These criticisms are, however, inapposite. The book focuses on the period that it covers -- the descent into war. It was never intended to focus on the outcome of these wars, and criticising it for that reason is inappropriate. Similarly, the charges of bias are inappopriate as well. Glenny is neither pro-Serb nor anti-Serb, pro-Croat nor anti-Croat. In a complex conflict laced with villains on all sides, Glenny's courageous effort to avoid portraying things in "black and white" is hardly a sign of bias, but rather a refreshing sign of realism in journalism. Rather than succumbing to the tendency in the Western media of demonizing one party to the conflict in toto, Glenny presents a more nuanced picture -- which is admittedly more complex, but certainly closer to the truth. Glenny's work is strengthened by his fluid writing, his lucid skills of description and analysis and his balanced viewpoint. One feels as if one were there with Glenny, which is at times rather frightening. Together with Brian Hall's "The Impossible Country", this book excels in its ability to give one the sense of what it was like to be there as Yugoslavia slid into oblivion. Other good compliments to this book include the chronologically arranged "Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation" (jammed with as many facts as you can bear) and Glenny's recent magnum opus history of the region "The Balkans".
Rating:
Summary: A Very Good Job By Misha Glenny
Review: Reading some parts of this book was one of my assignments in my "Contemporary Political Transitions" class in the University. When I read the assigned parts, I immediately decided to read the whole book. One of the most fascinating things about the book is that what you read there has been experienced lively by the author. Misha Glenny is very clear and he really manages to reach the audience. The chapters are very well organized. Especially the last chapter is very well organized and it includes a brief review together with an evaluation of the author. Nevertheless, if you decide to buy and read the book, I would advice you to make a brief research on the war in Yugoslavia and have a brief background. If you don't know anything about the subject, then you may find the book a little bit confusing. However, if you read the book having a little background about the issue, then you will definitely enjoy it.
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