Yugoslavia's Ethnic Nightmare: The Inside Story of Europe's Unfolding Ordeal Book

This is a very, very good book - I assume not widely read because it's rather outdated by now. Initially, I was slightly put off by the bombastic title, assuming that the writing would be too passionate. Instead, I found a very good and well written depiction of the first few years of the Yugoslav conflict. This collection of writings from various Balkans authors starts off with a description of the historical circumstances of the genesis and execution of the Yugoslav idea, as well as the key points in the development of communist Yugoslavia. For the most part, the authors refrain from passing any judgment, positive or negative, on Marshal Tito and his legacy - this is done on purpose as the redimensioning happens instead in the latter chapters, which explore the explosion of the ethnic conflict in the end of the 1980s and beginning of 1990s. Chapter 5 on Media Battles and discourse is especially well written and informative, exposing to its full extent the complex genesis and implications of a conflict that ultimately cannot be labeled as either ethnic or political. A few of the chapters, however, are too general and indeed rather passionate.

I think that parts of this book can serve as an excellent starting point for another edition of the same nature. One might say that most topics treated here have been exhausted both in media and academia in the past 20 years, however, seeing how the Balkans is facing another rise in nationalist sentiments, such projects involving multiethnic teams of writers and academics are more and more necessary every day.