The Balkans Since the Second World War

by R.J. Crampton

Since the collapse of Eastern European communism, the Balkans have been more prominent in world affairs than at any time since before the First World War. Crises in the area have led NATO to fire its first ever shots in anger, whilst international forces have been deployed on a scale and in a manner unprecedented in Europe since World War Two.An understanding of why this happened is impossible without some knowledge of the history of the area before the fall of communism, of how the communists came to power and how they used their authority thereafter. Covering the communist states of Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Yugoslavia, and including Greece, Richard Crampton provides a highly readable introduction to that history, one that will be read by journalists, diplomats and anyone interested in the region and its impact on world politics today.

Genres: History

Paperback

First published April 5, 2002

About the author

A specialist in the history of Bulgaria and the Balkans, Richard Crampton is a Fellow of St. Edmund College, Oxford, where he taught from 1967 until his retirement as professor of East European history in 2017.

Reviews

[Erazmo1986 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Actually this book deserves rating zero. This book doesn't have any connection with science this is just propaganda. I read that this guy is professor in Oxford university, historian, therefore he has obligation to be impartial, and everybody can see that he isn't. When I read a book I thought that this book wrote some PR NATO alliance, there is a lot inconsistencies, a lot the least problematic claims ( he speaks about siege of Sarajevo, bombing Markale by Serb where he claims that this is proved and I just want to ask where is a proof, masacre at village Racak where he says that Serbs killed civilians and this was the reason of NATO bombing, and today we know that they was soldiers who killed in battle, incident in Borovo Selo in Croatia when Serbs killed 12 Croatian ,,inoccent" policemen and there he didnt't tell the truth because we know that theese policemen attacked JNA etc). This guy is a proof that history sometimes is servant of politics. Terrible.

[David Naylor · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for a more firsthand account of the region. This author did not provide this; yes he provided a detailed history of the region through research - but this book does not have any journalistic integrity. I was looking to read a more journalistic first hand experience about the region, interviewing the various different cultures in which this book clearly fails. It seems as the author has never physically visited the Balkan’s.

I want to find out how ‘narod’ lived during this time period and how they are recovering from the wars after the fall of Yugoslavia. I would like to hear from each ‘narod’ first-hand (when the book was written most of the countries allowed some sort of ‘free’ press) to try and eliminate any bias and understand the persecutions faced for each group.