Heavenly Serbia: From Myth to Genocide

Rating:
Summary: The problem with myths in post-modern society
Review: I was well impressed by this book. Unfortunately, I am a bit troubled by the negative reviews that a number of other reviewers have given this book. No doubt, many of them are from people of Serbian or Orthodox decent. Regretablly, even some of the most open-minded Serbs and Greeks that I know tend to downplay the ugliness that is a part of our past, probably because it is a threat to their sense of identity in some way. I guess every culture has that though to some extent, I am ashamed of America's failure to come to terms with the genocide against Native Americans over the last 500 years, and the conditions they live today. Many Americans may just find it too troubling to come to terms with the fact that this nation was partially built on the blood of its indigenious peoples (as well as African slaves). That is a dark side of America's past many would rather forget. The same hold's true for Serb's and their history.

The author did a very impressive job exposing the deep roots of Serbia's national myths, which has fed an exlusivist ethnic based nationalism derived from a medieval rather than modern notion of a nation. I found his evidence very persuasive in most respects.

However, I do agree with many of the critics though that the book was weaker for failing to stress much on the Ustasa regime and the atrocities committed by the present day Tudjman-HDZ regime, which played a signifcant role in the current polarized climate (in other words, Milosevic and Serbs are not to be blamed entirely, although they are of primary responsiblity for the region's suffering). However, that does not mean this book is not without scholarly merit. Afterall, the book was about Serbs and their myths, not Croats, Bosniaks or Albanians.

Rating:
Summary: Croatian Propaganda
Review: Mr. Anzulovic, a Croatian nationalist has written a book only a croat nationalist could write. One which essentially blames all the Balkans troubles on the Serbs. In that classic Balkan style, he simply omits any reference to Croatian crimes and builds a simplistic and at times, erroneous case against Serbs. The fact that the entire Serbian community was eradicated by Croatia in 1995 - a full 50 years after Nazi Croatia tried to do in in WWII, is avoided. Anzulovic chooses to ignore the details and simply parrots Zagrebs party propganda line.

Rating:
Summary: Heavenly Serbia: From Myth to Genocide ?
Review: The author has expressed an agenda which is not supported by the facts. I offer the reader the following works to gain a better insight into this subject: "THE SERBIAN FOLK EPIC Its Theology and Anthropology by Rev. Dr. Krstivoj Kotur"; "SAINT PETER OF MONTENEGRO by V. Rev. Vladimir M. Mrvichin"; "THE MOUNTAIN WREATH of P.P. Nyegosh"; "HERO TALES AND LEGENDS OF THE SERBIANS by W.M. Petrovich"; "MARKO, THE KING'S SON by Clarence A. Manning". A brief review of almost any of these works will provide clarity, when compered with Anzulovic's work. A number of other materials are available to the reader at less cost, and may provide insight to a area of world conflict ("SPY IN THE VATICAN by Bronkn Bokum"; "THE SERBS CHOOSE WAR by Ruth Mitchell";...).

Rating:
Summary: A valuable account of the background of the Yugoslav wars
Review: This is a book about the history of Serbian nationalism and xenophobia. The author gives a quite brief treatment of early Serbian history then goes into, as all such accounts seem to, the famous 1389 Battle of Kosovo. But he gives more detail than similar accounts, discussing the medieval sagas of the battle in detail and showing how the legend that was built around it was modeled on legends relating to the temptation and crucifixion of Christ. He also takes pains to refute another Serbian myth, that the Serbs, while losing their own independence, saved Europe from the Ottomans. In fact, as he demonstrates, the weakened Serb state after 1389 was a Turkish ally and helped the Ottomans move into Europe.

There is much more, discussing the more recent history of Serbia, the role of the Serbian Orthodox church, and the rise of modern Serbian nationalism as the Ottoman Empire collapsed. We find extensive discussion of such figures as Petar Njegos, the 19th Century Montenegrin patriarch whose epic "The Mountain Wreath" was one of the first landmarks of modern Serbian literature, and Bishop Velimirovic, a notoriously anti-Semitic theologian of the 20th Century, who, shortly after this book was published, was named a Saint by the Serbian church. Disinctions within the Serbian community, between Serbia proper, Montenegro, and Vojvodina, as well as tensions between rural and urban Serbs, are also discussed with historical context.

This book is written with a plain pro-Croatian and anti-Serbian bias, and the reader should be aware of that and properly cautious about many of the conclusions. Still, it has the virtue of packing a great deal of material into a package that is rather brief (not much over 200 pages) and easily accessible. The useful material on many subjects that aren't easily available in such accessible English language sources earns this book a high rating, in spite of the clear biases.