Reviews for The Balkans: A Post Communist History

The average rating for The Balkans: A Post Communist History based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-06-18 00:00:00 Claudio Fredes After the all around nationalistic oriented history (both under the national communism of Nicolae Ceausescu and after his downfall) this book is a good reality check though unlike Hungarian sponsored histories which are explicitly anti-Romanian, this one is written by a fellow traveler so to speak, so it has to be taken with its own grain of salt This being said, the only surprise is that there are no real surprises - at least from the 1914 or so period on which is the one I always was mostly interested in as the late 19th century political scene has been done to perfection by Caragiale and like with the sausages metaphor, nation building's end result is much prettier than the way it was done (and that's true for Romania as is for the USA for that matter) - especially if beyond standard stuff, one delves into memoirs, polemics about the role of this or that person in this or that event... The main point that defined Romania's modern history - the intersection of Latin temperament, Balkanic mores and very difficult geopolitical location (like Poland between the Germanic and the Slav empires, Romania was where the tectonic plates of empires - here Ottoman/Muslim, Orthodox Slav and Catholic German, cultures and civilizations met for a long time) - is made very well and repeatedly throughout the book Overall an excellent English language presentation of the title written in an accessible and reasonably flowing style and highly recommended

Review # 2 was written on 2016-08-23 00:00:00 Kelly Lam Istoricul si profesorul american Keith Arnold Hitchins face un adevarat tur de forta infatisandu-ne istoria pe care credem ca o stim de cand ne-am nascut. O istorie a romanilor si a Romaniei, in peste 1000 de pagini. Aproape doua secole, de la fanarioti la comunisti. Fara partinire, fara excese, cu date si argumente de limpezimea cristalului. Absolut fascinante sunt capitolele dedicate literaturii, filosofiei si vietii culturale. O lucrare monument care ar trebui sa fie prezenta in toate programele scolare. Ar fi un prim pas hotarat spre adevar.