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Title: The Balkans : A Short History by MARK MAZOWER ISBN: 0-8129-6621-X Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 06 August, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.8 (10 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Academic in a Good Way
Comment: This Balkans book is truly a "Short History" as it is labeled, only 156 pages, but it packs a lot of information into its pages. It has a wonderful chronology of history and seven useful sequential maps of the Balkans at the beginning. It incorporates geology of the region to good purpose. It fills in the Byzantium and Ottoman history in a fine academic way, putting one into the structure of life under those eras. It challenges the idea of Ottoman rule as somehow backward or primitive, repeatedly comparing the tolerance of three religious groups, and freedom of peasants under Ottoman rule with far less "modern" or tolerant attitudes in Western Europe at comparable times. But 150 odd pages is just too little to get to the end, when Princeton history professor Mazower tries to tackle the violence of the 20th century. He has built a good case for nationalism rather than religion taking over people's sense of themselves, and lays blame on the great powers for introducing it without the structure to control it. The final chapter "On Violence"is only 9 pages long. This book starts off better than it ends, but it is a nice companion to Balkan Ghosts by Robert Kaplan, which is more personal, and less academic, though still filled with historical information. But Mazower's academic is helpful in understanding geology, sociology, history, religion and government in a way which fills in the pieces, like a good college introduction should, even if too short.
Rating: 5
Summary: Comprehensive and Enlightening
Comment: Mazower takes on the whole history of the region from the fifteenth century onward, and while the shortness of the book requires generalization, he peppers almost every paragraph with a quote or two from a historian of the time or else a peasant or notable. These quotes tend to ground Mazower's sweeping analysis. Moreover, he puts the Balkans into the context of the breakup of the Ottoman Empire, and he shows why individual studies of each nation in the region sometimes miss a larger context. One fact needs to be corrected: the Patriarchate in Istanbul now presides not only over the 2,000 Greek Orthodox Christians in that city, but also over all the Greek Orthodox Christians in Australia, and North and South America, as well as some non-Greek denominations in those continents. If I'm not mistaken, the Palestinian and Syrian Orthodox churches also come nominally under that Ecumenical guidance.
Rating: 3
Summary: Concise
Comment: Very good information delivered in the best way possible.
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Title: Peoples and Empires : A Short History of European Migration, Exploration, and Conquest, from Greece tothe Present by Anthony Pagden ISBN: 0812967615 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 07 January, 2003 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: The Renaissance : A Short History by Paul Johnson ISBN: 0812966198 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 06 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Communism : A History by Richard Pipes ISBN: 0679640509 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 04 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The German Empire, 1870-1918 (Modern Library Chronicles) by MICHAEL STURMER ISBN: 0679640908 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 14 November, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Inventing Japan, 1853-1964 (Modern Library Chronicles) by Ian Buruma ISBN: 0679640851 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 04 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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