Reviews for Social Actors & Des Civ Soc East Europe

The average rating for Social Actors & Des Civ Soc East Europe based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-04-09 00:00:00 Lindsay Brown A hack history of the Balkans and one-sided condemnation of Serbia that is just as valid as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This book influenced Richard Holbrooke's already muddled perspective of the region. Cohen was trained as a dentist and dermatologist when he indulged in the writing of this mythology. Like all mythologies, this tract has just enough factual touchstones to make it seem as if the entire thesis is sound. Sadly, once a narrative becomes a cultural palimpsest by writing over historical veracity, the veracity is no longer seen and cannot be easily read. Cohen comes off as an excellent propagandist, worthy of Ed Bernays, and his over-writing of history has taken hold in the West, and acts as a major hindrance to actual understanding of the Balkans in general, and the relationship between Serbia and the rest of the world. Majorly flawed and falsely presented as the work of a knowledgeable academic, Cohen's book should be read with a pound of salt and the knowledge that this serves as an example of how to view a complex and troubled situation with the narrowest possible perspective and a tankful of presuppositional, malformed opinion. Laura Silber, Mark Thompson, Roger Cohen, Tim Judah, Robert Donia, Peter Andreas, Zlatko Dizdarević, and Misha Glenny have all written excellent books about the Balkans & the break-up of Yugoslavia. Philip J. Cohen's book could be put to excellent use as kindling for a cooking fire should you ever be hungry enough while trapped in a city under siege...

Review # 2 was written on 2015-02-05 00:00:00 Kurt Berlin It's much better and more scholarly then the first reviewer suggests !