Reviews for The Long Arm of Papal Authority: Late Medieval Christian Peripheries and Their Communications with the Holy See

The average rating for The Long Arm of Papal Authority: Late Medieval Christian Peripheries and Their Communications with the Holy See based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-01-05 00:00:00 Ibrahim Karahan As has been mentioned, this book is comprehensive. A consequence of this is that in exchange for not being twice its length, it's written briskly and is going to leave you behind if you're not at least a little bit already familiar with the people and moments in Croatian history that are outlined here. You need to do a little bit of homework before picking this book up. But I would suggest that, particularly for someone interested in a text that provides a "Croatian point-of-view", it will be worth your while. Other books that deal with Croatia's, and Yugoslavia's history, have made an opposite compromise; they focus only on the last 50-100 years of the country's history. If you do not preface the Croatia of the 20th and 21st century with everything that came before it, then yes, you are going to see the Croatian Spring of the 1970s as irresponsible politicking, and dismiss the entirety of the wars of the 1990s as 'tribal warring' where all parties are equally guilty. i.e. there is a common criticism of historical texts of the Balkans that they are often implicitly or explicitly pro-Serbian. Having now read this book and seen how it handles things differently, the other texts are not going into this necessarily pro-Serbian, they are simply focused on brevity and simplicity. If you go at the Balkans like that, the quickest and easiest solution will very often be to rule for Serbia, or, even worse, dismiss the entire region as incomprehensible. There is no clear timeline here. There is no definitive origin of the Croatian people, no set date for the start of Croatia, so that if you're only going to pick the last 100 years and try to make a short and simple book it's going to make conclusions that question the merits of Croatia as a people and as a nation. So if you go into these shorter, simpler books, you still need to do a bit of research beforehand, or else you're going to make the same mistake as the authors of these lighter texts - the history of the Balkans is not a matter of levity where you pick your favourite country the same way you pick your favourite sports team, and then draw conclusions from there. Yes, its history a difficult, checkered and non-linear affair that will confound most historians (so that many texts by British authors from the 1950s - 1990s have 'picked' the Serbs, who have a much neater and organized past), but that does not call Croatia's national identity into question. Again, you have to do your homework and understand how and why it could ever be possible for the very name of Croatia to survive the last 1500-odd years. This book isn't a refreshing break because it's "pro-Croatian," it's refreshing because it does a thorough and honest job of chronicling what Croatia is and who Croatians are. It will serve anyone who would like to understand Croatia, so long as you are willing to put the time into it. Marcus Tanner deserves a great deal of thanks for his work here.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-05-21 00:00:00 David Mello This book provides a concise overview of the history of conflict in Croatia, as well as broader conflicts in the Croatian region from a Croatian perspective. Marcus Tanner adopts a descriptive approach in this book, seeking to weave a narrative discussing the political and military intrigue in the country from the time that the ancestors of modern Croatians first migrated to the region in the 7th century. The book is divided into twenty chapters, the first of which describes the control of the region by the Byzantines and Franks, and the conversion of the region to Christianity. The following three chapters analyze the manner in which the Hungarians came to dominate the Croatian kingdom, while also providing some description on how the clan leaders slowly began the transition to a feudal system. Following the attacks by Crusaders in the Second Crusade, as well as the Mongol invasion of the thirteenth century, analysis then proceeds to discuss the Ottoman invasion and control of the region. The fourth and fifth chapters discuss Austrian influence over Croatia, and the manner in which they drove the Ottomans from Croatia in the 1690s. The effects of the rise of Croatian nationalism is discussed in chapters six through nine. Tanner emphasizes the importance of French Revolution and the revolutions of 1848. The former he argues was of minimal importance beyond urban areas, while the latter demonstrated the increasing desire for an independent state. This nationalism was strengthened as the Croatian monarchy was subjected under the Hungarian, with the creation of the Dual Monarchy in the 1860s. Focus is then turned to the creation of the Yugoslav state, and the jostling of Croatian leaders to bring about a favourable status for their nation within the 'Sporazum' (or 'agreement') which sought Croatian parity with Serbia as an autonomous region within the new state. Chapters 11 and 12 focus on the experience in Croatia under the Ustashe - the fascist group who collaborated with German invades during the Second World War. After discussing in great detail the Ustashe's political and military operations during the war, attention is turned to the rise of Tito. A chapter devoted to the Croatian Spring of the 1960s, seeking increasing democratic and economic reforms, is followed by one on the death of Tito and the rise of Milosevic and Serbian nationalism as it increasingly asserted control over the Yugoslav state. The fifteenth through nineteenth chapters discuss the independent state of Croatia, and the descent into regional conflict in the 1990s. Tanner places specific emphasis on Croatia's role with Serbia, while largely leaving out regional conflict and geopolitical concerns. Whereas one chapter - entitled "Danke Deutschland" - discusses briefly external concerns and involvement, this is secondary to Tanner's emphasis on the Croatian perspective, which was largely foucssed on Serbia regardless of external actors. Emphasis is placed on the conflict with the Republic of Krajina (ethnically Serb republic within Croatia's borders), Serbian support for their co-ethnics, as well as the Croatian military campaign to seize it back. The nineteenth chapter focuses on the post-conflict independence, and the state's struggles to rebuild infrastructure, joining the EU, and struggling with its post-Yugoslav identity and post-conflict legacy. As the third edition of this book, this book adds a twentieth chapter to the second edition, in which the author discusses Croatian political and economic strengthening in the post-2000 period. He discusses the continued difficulty of Croatia in constructing a new nationalism and identity, including the rights of previously persecuted communities such as the Serbs and Jews, as well as the increasing gay rights movement in the country. A brief discussion is dedicated to the attempts of Croatia to join the European Union. For the beginner on Croatian history, this book will provide an in depth overview of the history of the recently independent country, as well as its historical and cultural origins as they relate to war and conflict. For the expert however, the book may seem long on detail and short on analysis. Naturally, any attempt to cover the entire history of a state and ethnicity will necessarily leave out much, and Tanner should be commended for sticking to his goals of discussing Croatia and its experience in conflict. However, the book might benefit from increased analysis on how the conflict has led to the nationalism in specific, and how those nationalism and forms of identity within Croatia both contributed to and were defined by the conflict it experienced over time. The discussion is descriptive in approach, focussing largely on military history and political manoeuvre as it relates to the key individuals in each period. There is much on coalitions, political jostling and interpersonal relationships between the key figures in each of Croatia's historical periods, while there is little in terms of socio-cultural development and change beyond the manner in which the country was a microcosm of larger religious conflict.