Bosnia: A Short History: Amazon.ca: Books

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11 Reviews

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4.8 out of 5 stars (11 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to get caught up in the story, Sep 19 2008

By

Greg Slade "Grga" (Vancouver, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bosnia (Paperback)

It's hard getting people to understand what life is really like in Bosnia, partly because the media have been feeding people such misinformation about the situation. (I found out why when I was in Tuzla. I was rather bemused to see an American TV crewed guarded by a squad of SFOR troops, armed to the teeth. This, when I had been wandering around town on my own for months, not carrying so much as a penknife. You can't tell people what life is like in a given situation if you can't find out what it's like yourself.)

It's not possible to understand the present situation in Bosnia without understanding the historical background, and one of the best sources I have discovered so far is Noel Malcolm's Bosnia: A Short History. (Don't let the size frighten you. Nearly a third of the bulk is taken up with a glossary, bibliography, and index at the back. You will not be tested on this material, although it's useful if you choose to dig further.) The last 60 pages or so cover the recent wars, but Malcolm starts back in pre-Roman times, and thus gives the background necessary to understand the region, and to refute some of the myths and propaganda which have so muddied the world's view of the situation.

Do I have any quibbles? Well, a few more maps would have been nice, and perhaps some photos. But then again, this is a scholarly work. It's just that Malcolm writes so well that it's easy to get caught up in the story, and get the impression that you're reading a popular work, instead of the carefully researched study that it is.

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5.0 out of 5 stars A Good History Of Bosnia, Jun 20 2003

By

Ronald B. Turner "my blog: http://naughtypun... (Newport, Kentucky USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Bosnia: A Short History (Paperback)

Basically, the name says it all. It's a short, quick history of Bosnia written at the height of the 1990s Balkan War and designed to shoot down a number of myths that the author finds maddening. He ends up having quite a blast ripping into long-dead historians, propagandists, and contemporary journalists and politicians for messing up Bosnian history.

While you could say it's biased, the author does do a pretty decent job in covering the history of Bosnia. After taking a brief look at Early Bosnia up to 1100 the book mostly focuses on Medieval and Ottoman Bosnia before breezing through the 20th-century. If you were looking for a history of the Bosnian War don't bother, as the book was written before it was over. However, the author does cover its origins and beginning. He also very strongly makes the point that it was systematic planned genocide by Slobodan Milosevic, not so-called ancient tribal hatreds, that was responsible for much of the carnage in the conflict.

All in all it was a very good book. There's a little something for everyone. It's very well written. You can breeze through the small chapters, finish the book in a day, and get a basic outline of everything. Or you can go slow, immerse yourself in the little details, and become a genuine mini-expert on Bosnian history. If you hate foreign words, then there might be a problem because the author uses them constantly and often describes the origins of words to show history. But despite that it's still easy to read. In the end, I came way with a better understanding of topics not generally covered in the history books: Bosnia, the Balkans, the Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian Empires, and Islam among other things.

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5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent piece of work., Jun 16 2003

By

Samir (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Bosnia: A Short History (Paperback)

Malcolm manages to cover the entire gamut in this brief but rich work. From pre-Ottoman Bosnia, through the Ottomans and Austrians up until the present. He not only offers excellent facts, but in the spirit of the true historian, analyzes and juxtaposes the various versions of historical literature on the region that has been accumulated over the years. If you want a great introduction to Bosnian history, then this is the way to go.

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent
This book is exactly what it purports to be: a short history of Bosnia, meant to explain the atrocities that took place in the 1990s. Read more

Published on May 7 2002

5.0 out of 5 stars Disturbingly accurate portrayal of Bosnia's past
It is almost sad that the most accurate historic book about Bosnia was writen, not by a person born in Bosnia, but someone born outside it's borders. Read more

Published on Nov 28 2001 by Adnan Mesic