Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a Grammar: With Sociolinguistic Commentary
by Ronelle Alexander
from University of Wisconsin Press
· Thorough presentation of the grammar common to Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian, with explication of all the major differences
· Examples from a broad range of spoken language and literature
· New approaches to accent and clitic ordering, two of the most difficult points in BCS grammar
· Order of grammar presentation in chapters 1–16 keyed to corresponding lessons in Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian, a Textbook
· "Sociolinguistic commentary" explicating the cultural and political context within which Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian function and have been defined
· Separate indexes of the grammar and sociolinguistic commentary, and of all words discussed in both
The Suitcase: Refugee Voices from Bosnia and Croatia
by Julie Mertus
from University of California Press
The whirlwind of Europe's longest war in half a century has produced this powerful collection of personal narratives--essays, letters, and poems--from refugees fleeing Bosnia and Croatia. Taking us behind the barrage of media coverage, these stories tell of perseverance, brutality, forced departure, exile, and courage. With startling immediacy and in moving detail, speakers tell of stuffing a few belongings--a handful of photographs, a rock from the garden, a change of clothes--into a suitcase and fleeing their homeland.
Contributors from all ethnic groups and every region of Bosnia and Croatia describe their sense of lost community, memories of those left behind, recollections of town squares that no longer exist, and homes now occupied by neighbors. The editors of The Suitcase, themselves representing the diverse peoples of the region, traveled to camps and temporary homes across the globe to collect these stories. An antidote to apathy, this work moves beyond and outside the vicissitudes of daily politics to portray the human tragedy at the center of present-day Bosnia and Croatia. Probing the intimate losses of countless individuals, it delivers a powerful indictment of injustice, militarism, prejudice, and warfare.
The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia, Second Edition (Yale Nota Bene)
by Tim Judah
from Yale University Press
The recent war in Bosnia re-ignited ancient hatreds and led to acts of brutality that echoed World War II atrocities: large-scale massacres and "ethnic cleansing". Bosnian Serbs, aided by Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic, systematically murdered, raped, and terrorized Bosnian Muslims as they strove to create a Greater Serbia. Now, journalist Tim Judah provides some perspective on the horrors of the Bosnian conflict with The Serbs. Make no mistake, Judah is not an apologist for Serbian excesses; rather, he aims to explicate the Balkans' long and violent history leading to this latest tragic conflict.
The Serbs begins with the establishment of a Serbian state in the Middle Ages, then follows Serb fortunes through ensuing centuries of conquest, conflict, and oppression. Ethnic cleansing in the Balkans is hardly unique to the Bosnian war; it has been a horrific element of all Balkan conflicts, and Judah convincingly argues that Serbian nationalism is an outgrowth of the Serbs' own sufferings as victims of ethnic cleansing in past conflicts. Anyone interested in current affairs--particularly in the Balkans--will find Tim Judah's The Serbs an engrossing and important exploration of the Bosnian conflict.
This wide-ranging, scholarly, and highly readable account opens with the windswept fortresses of medieval kings and a battle lost more than six centuries ago that still profoundly influences the Serbs. Judah describes the idea of "Serbdom" that sustained them during centuries of Ottoman rule, the days of glory during the First World War, and the genocide against them during the Second. He examines the tenuous ethnic balance fashioned by Tito and its unraveling after his death. And he reveals how Slobodan Milosevic, later to become president, used a version of history to drive his people to nationalist euphoria. Judah details the way Milosevic prepared for war and provides gripping eyewitness accounts of wartime horrors: the burning villages and "ethnic cleansing," the ignominy of the siege of Sarajevo, and the columns of bedraggled Serb refugees, cynically manipulated and then abandoned once the dream of a Greater Serbia was lost.
This first in-depth account of life behind Serbian lines is not an apologia but a scrupulous explanation of how the people of a modernizing European state could become among the most reviled of the century. Rejecting the stereotypical image of a bloodthirsty nation, Judah makes the Serbs comprehensible by placing them within the context of their history and their hopes.
The Fall of Yugoslavia
by Misha Glenny
from Penguin Books Ltd
Croatia: A History
by Ivo Goldstein
from McGill-Queen's University Press
The Myth of Ethnic War: Serbia And Croatia in the 1990s
by V. P., Jr. Gagnon
from Cornell University Press
Croatia Through History
by Branka Magas
from Saqi Books
This comprehensive volume recounts Croatia's development from the early Middle Ages to the present day. Branka Maga observes that the ties that bound Croatia to other states for centuries have contributed to the state's vitality, with a complex web of Slav, Croat, Dalmatian, Slavonian, Serb, Jewish, Italian, Yugoslav, and other identities emerging as apart of an ongoing social and political dialogue, which at times has included open strife.
Branka Maga is a historian, journalist, and commentator on the former Yugoslavia. She co-founded the Croatian Peace Forum in 1991 and the Alliance to Defend Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1993.
The Yugoslav Wars (1): Slovenia & Croatia 1991-95 (Elite)
by Nigel Thomas
from Osprey Publishing
Following the death of the Yugoslavian strongman President Tito in 1980, the several semi-autonomous republics and provinces that he had welded into a nation in 1945 moved inexorably towards separation. After a deceptively clean break for independence by Slovenia in 1991, the world watched a series of other wars rip through this modern European state. In this first of two volumes, experts on the Balkan region give an unprecedentedly clear, concise explanation of the Slovene, Croatian and Krajina-Serb armies of these campaigns, illustrated with rare photos and an extraordinary range of colour uniform plates.
Croatia: A Nation Forged in War, Second Edition
by Marcus Tanner
from Yale University Press
Left in tatters after the violent breakup of Yugoslavia, the new country of Croatia has served as a troubled crossroads between East and West since the Dark Ages. Veteran journalist Marcus Tanner set out to write the recent history of this nation, but found it impossible to cover the 1990s without referring to World War II, and impossible to write about that period without going back even further. So he begins his account in the 7th century, covers Croatian history in a brief but thorough manner, and spends the final third of his book describing how Croatia regained its sovereignty in 1992. A glut of books on the Balkan War give short shrift to this intriguing story. Tanner corrects this problem with a fine and unique contribution.
In this book an eyewitness to the breakup of Yugoslavia provides the first full and impartial account of the rise, fall, and rebirth of Croatia from its medieval origins to today's tentative peace. Marcus Tanner describes the turbulence and drama of Croatia's past and--drawing on his own experience and interviews with many of the leading figures in Croatia's conflict--explains its violent history since Tito's death in 1980. This second edition updates the account and follows Croatia's progress to democracy since the death of President Franjo Tudjman.
Croatia: Travels in Undiscovered Country
by Tony Fabijancic
from The University of Alberta Press
In his travels through Croatia, Tony Fabijancic saw a world of peasants, shepherds and fishermen irrevocably giving way to the new reality of a modern European state. With a deft and sure touch, he records moments that capture the lingering spirit of the old world even as the former fabric of this place is unravelling forever. The authorÂ’s profound familiarity with the "extraordinary regionality" of Croatia leads to memorable images of the country, and to sketches and unhurried ruminations on its people, its landscapes, kitchens, cities, and coastlines.
+++
