Rating: 
Summary: No Ghosts Here!!!!!!
Review: A friend sent me a copy of this book, and I eagerly tore into it that night -- I was in the mood for some oldtimey frights, and this collection of historical ghost stories from other planets (or wherever) seemed like just the ticket. The chapter titles indicated some really cool freakouts also: "Just So They Could Go To Heaven" or "Land Beyond Dracula's Castle" or "Pied Piper's Children Go Back to Harlem and Kill." Alas, page after page, story after story, hour after hour, I slowly began to realize that something was wrong. THERE ARE NO GHOST STORIES IN HERE! Not even an "urban legend." If you're looking for something good like that, then skip over this one.
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Summary: A wonderful tour of The Balkans
Review: Robert Kaplan is an excellent writer and very real. This book was insightful and amazing especially for anyone who has travelled or will travel to that part of the world.
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Summary: Provocative, Controversial - Sobering Balkan Travels
Review: During the 1990s the Balkans again were center stage. We learned about Slobodan Milosevic, the 1389 Battle of Kosovo, Croatia's unsavory past with the Ustashe, Radovan Karadzic, besieged Sarajevo, the Dayton Accords, and a host of other bewildering events, personalities, and locations.Why did the Balkans explode again? Balkan Ghosts, A Journey Through History (1993) offers a sensitive and sympathetic, but nonetheless chilling look at Balkan history. Despite the recent collapse of the Soviet Union, the Balkans, a geographically complex mix of religious and ethnic groups, were still largely quiet in 1993 when Kaplan published his unsettling prognosis. Kaplan has been widely acclaimed for this portrayal of the modern Balkans and he is recognized for his influence on American foreign policy. His writing is superb, possibly giving an undue weight and significance to Kaplan's historical and political analysis. But, others argue that Kaplan - with his inherent Western bias - cannot understand and appreciate the Balkans. Others blame the rivalry of great powers - the Ottoman Empire, Austria-Hungary, Hitler's Germany, Czarist Russia, the Soviet empire, and American imperialism. Leave us alone and we will resolve our issues ourselves. Having read Balkan Ghosts, I am not surprised by these disparate reviews. Seemingly everyone views the Balkans through flawed lenses, all distorted by a long history of religious and ethnic warfare, acts of great cruelty, shifting alliances and borders, and continual oppression. Reading Balkan Ghosts, I wondered whether the tenacious grip of history will ever be broken. Kaplan is certainly provocative. He argues that the Balkans are only comprehensible in terms of the past. Everyone everywhere thrusts maps forward, depicting larger boundaries, reflecting past glories. For each ethnic group, history begins at the zenith of past glories, the maximum territorial extent. He claims that modern terrorism began in the Balkans. Radical clergy has its birthplace here also. Classical Greece so prevalent in Western thought is mythology; it ceased to exist during the past 1500 years. Greece today is as much a part of the Balkans as is Bulgaria and Romania. As we travel with Kaplan across Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece, he looks for meaningful patterns underlying the complex mosaic of historical forces. He incorporates intriguing analysis and comments of earlier travelers, notably from Dame Rebecca West's travels immediately before WWI, from Walter Starkie's travels with Gypsies through Hungary and Romania in 1929, and from commentary by various journalists spanning the last century. I was captivated by Balkan Ghosts and it is hard imagine a more riveting introduction to the Balkans. I am compelled to read more and I hope to become familiar with writings by Balkan authors. I highly recommend Robert Kaplan's remarkable work.
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Summary: first rate book of Balkan history and travel
Review: This was a fantastic book, a wonderful blend of history and travel writing. Reading it I learned a great deal about the Balkans, particularly the lands of the former Yugoslavia as well as Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece.
One of the best aspects of the book was how Robert D. Kaplan tied together some unifying characteristics of the Balkan states, bringing some order, at least conceptually, to a rather chaotic region. I loved how he wrote that whatever has happened in any trouble spot in the Middle East happened in the Balkans first; for instance they produced the first terrorists of the 20th century (the IMRO or Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization). Before there were radical Muslim clerics in the headlines there were radical Orthodox clergy in the Balkans. The dispossessed Palestinians throughout the Middle East were preceded in the early decades of the 20th century by the huge number of Macedonian refugees in Sofia, Bulgaria, the result of the Second Balkan War in 1913. Even the Palestinian Intifada had its predecessor in the Albanian intifada in Serbia beginning in the early 1980s. One defining aspect of the various Balkan nations that Kaplan noted was that each one desires that its borders revert to where they were at the exact time of its zenith. This was especially clear in the case of Macedonia; many Greeks believe it is theirs since that was where Alexander the Great hailed from; the Bulgarians had it in the 10th and 13th centuries; it was part of the Serbian empire in the 14th century. As he puts it, the principal sickness of the Balkans is "conflicting dreams of lost imperial glory." This book has often been cited for its excellent coverage of the former Yugoslavia, and rightly so, showing a very diverse land, states so diverse today it is hard to believe they were ever united, countries at times mired in past glories and horrors. In Croatia the debate over the World War II legacy of Cardinal Aloysisu Stepinac serves as the primary symbol of the Serb-Croat conflict. Kaplan vividly contrasts Croatia, which is a fairly western, urbane, and ethnically uniform nation, with Bosnia, a "morass" of ethnically mixed mountain villages, "rural, isolated, and full of suspicions and hatreds." He writes that Serbia, almost from its inception in the 12th century, was among the most civilized states in Europe at the time; in the 14th century an empire so powerful that it challenged the Byzantine Empire itself. Indeed Constantinople was so desperate to fight off the advances of King Stefan Dushan that they invited Turkish armies into Europe, which eventually defeated the Serbians at arguably the defining battle of Balkan history, at Kosovo Polje, the Field of Black Birds, in 1389, destroying the Serbian kingdom and creating a legacy of hatred and revenge from that battle that would continue till today. I thought his chapters on Romania even better, a nation through which he traveled extensively. He vividly showed that Romania in the past and to a large degree today is a land where one's survival was paramount - understandable in a nation invaded and ruled by so many - where prostitution, informing on others, and black marketeering were commonplace, so much so that Tsar Nicholas II sneered that being Romanian was not a nationality but a profession. This has been true both on an individual level and on a national level, as Romanian history has been one desperate deal after another to stave off doom. Romania he writes in some ways is an odd land, one caught between East and West; seemingly Slavic, its language Latinate, perhaps more similar to ancient Latin than modern Italian or Spanish, its culture a mixture of the Latin bent for melodrama and the Byzantine and Orthodox legacy of intrigue and mysticism. His portrait of Bulgaria was also quite interesting, a country in the Cold War seemingly squarely under the thumb of Moscow but perhaps more independent than most satellite nations, careful to exercise its policies under the table and covertly, often at the expense of hated Turkey, even involving truly Byzantine plots such as the plan to assassinate the Pope. Kaplan writes that some of its people represent it being dismissed as a mere Communist backwater, as it was once a powerful empire in the 9th and 10th centuries, the first of all Slav peoples to embrace Orthodox Christianity, and it was from Bulgaria that the monks Cyril and Methodius spread the Cyrillic alphabet to Russia and elsewhere, making it the birthplace of Slavonic languages and culture. Kaplan includes Greece as part of the Balkans, even though many he writes do not regard it as such. Having lived at the time of the writing seven years in Greece, he saw first hand that Greece at times was only superficially a Mediterranean and Western country. Just as in other Balkan countries, there are those in Greece who rage about the fate of lands that were once theirs and of Greek minorities abroad. Though Greece produced the first humanistic culture and art, one that glorified the individual rather than the ruler, Westerners often mistakenly believe that this is the defining characteristic of Greece, rather than seeing it as a battleground between East and West on the very fringes of Europe, and fail to take into account later Greek history as much modern Greek thought owes more to Byzantine and Ottoman legacies rather than to Classical times. Much of Greek history and culture is symbolized by the divide between the Hellene, what the ancient Greeks called themselves, their roots in the West, relying on principle and logic, and the Romios, the Greeks of the Eastern Roman and later Byzantine Empires, relying on instinct, on the miracle working powers of icons, seeing Greece as outside Europe. I have only scratched the surface of this riveting book here. I highly recommend it, one that really helped me see common threads both with modern events and the past and among the various Balkan countries.
Rating: 
Summary: A look on our history through the eyes of a third party
Review: On an opening text for the greek version , Kaplan notices that Greece has changed a lot since the 80's and for that reason , this book should be read as a study on the country's past not present . The greek reader instantly starts to feel a little bit ichy ... " What horrible things could this man have written about us ? " he wonders . No need to worry really . Kaplan's look on greek recent history is sharp and interesting . He does not hesitate to point out the huge influence the extreme political persona of Andreas Papadreou had on a big part of the greek people . Even today , his party never dares to judge honestly his choices and possible mistakes and keeps referring to him as some kind of Messiah of the greek political history . Besides Greece though , Balkan Ghosts focuses on almost all Balkan nations except Slovenia and Turkey . Kaplan examines the region's recent past and presents a potrait of the psychology and the way of thinking of the people living here . You'll probably find his conclusions and notices annoying if you are greek , bulgarian , croatian , romanian and oh my God , especially if you are turkish . Indeed , he does tell you his opinion right to your face ... His writing style is rich and gripping . Despite his virtues as a writter though , his offering is uneven . Some parts of the book , especially the chapters on Romania , although sporadically witty , are simply too confusing to follow . Maybe it's the area's history which is so complicated ... or maybe Kaplan just didn't manage to control his huge amount of information . Furthermore , what will a reader who has nothing to do with the Balkans receive ? Will he understand the region's unhealed wounds or will he consider the people of the Balkans merciless maniacs who just don't know how to forget and move forward ? If you are a citizen of a Balkan country , reading Balkan Ghosts is like looking yourself in the mirrow and trying to face your past actions and mistakes . In a way , it's like experiencing a teenager's eternal insecurity too ... " what is true ? What i think i'm like or what the others think i am like ? " . Kaplan has lived and travelled all over the Balkans for many years . He has no reason not to be objective and nowone claims that he isn't . The question is does he have what it takes to deeply understand the Balkans ? Does he have what it takes judge them ?
Rating:
Summary: Readable
Review: "Oppressed" nations turning oppressors when opportunities arise. The absence of direct rule by a great power has created trouble spots such as the Middle East, Caucasus, and the Balkans. The book does a pretty good job in providing an insight on the national psychologies of most Balkan nations. After reading the book the impression I got is that the desire for ethnic and religious dominance over others to be the main cause for the regional instability in the Balkans. Serbs vs Croats, Bulgarians vs Serbs, Greeks vs Bulgarians, Romanians vs. Hungarians, Orthdox vs Catholic, Orthodox + Catholic vs Muslims, etc. (you name it) The author is disproportionately focused on the subject of Jews of the Balkans where they have always constituted a very small percent of the population. The Gypsies on the other hand are rarely mentioned. I recommend this book. (Currently there are not many alternatives on the subject anyway)
Rating: 
Summary: terribly opinionated, to the point of being almost fictional
Review: As a Romanian living in the USA, who has traveled extensively through Eastern Europe both before and after 1989, this book has left me perplexed. On one hand, it does a good job at depicting a complex situation with fractured societies trying to modernize and come to grips with their past deeds and misfortunes. On the other hand, Kaplan is much too frequently given to overdramatization. Local nuances escape him; for example, in Romanian 'drac' means as much trickster as it means devil. It is not necessarily a bad term. You can call someone a drac and this may mean you admire that person for being devious, while Kaplan would have this name conjure a mystical Dracula as a sign of the Other Europe which cannot ever be enlightened and saved from itself. As such, for example, Ceausescu was as much admired as he was feared and hated; he tricked them (and us) all. In fact, I believe it's this multiplicity, which is a characteristic of the whole region, which puzzles Kaplan and which he never quite gets; after all this is South Eastern Europe, where Latins meet and mingle with Slavs, various breeds of Southerners and Levantines. You get treachery, you get backstabbing, you get shifting alliances, you get hot blood and high emotions, and also you get a (often times very black) dose of humor which somehow makes things very light. I believe this is the case with other leaders of the region, who managed to get to the top and stay there by a combination of cunning, deceit, ruthlessness, and other Byzantine skills, by taking advantage of a largely rural, unsophisticated, and especially careless population. Besides, some of the things he says (this may be in a different book though) are downright silly; he notices how no one in a crowd is wearing a watch or how people in a certain place don't have coffee for breakfast. Gee, my American co-workers have Coke for breakfast and I never took this as a sign of a past or future tragedy. The area indeed has quite a few identity problems to solve yet. Poverty is widespread, and maybe not so much poverty as gaping discrepancies between the few haves and many have nots; an independent legal system is not fully enforced yet (politics get in the way); various Mafias run rampant; there is a lingering nationalism and even disillusionment with the West, which often times has approached the region with glaring lack of understanding of the local cultural sensitivities. However, after the bloody hell that was Yugoslavia, no other major conflicts have emerged, and I believe that slowly (sometimes VERY slowly), more trustworthy relationships between the countries, communities, and ethnic groups, are developing. There is a significant young population which is Westernized, professional, urbane BUT has a strong attachment to the local values. All these paint a moderately optimistic picture, where in a foreseeable future the area will have left most of its 'troubles' behind and have become a conflict-free part of Europe. This is not the ever cursed land Kaplan would have you believe it is.
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Summary: How not to write such a book
Review: Kaplan, nowadays, seems to be an authority for narrow-minded politicians and for the large public -- both of whom are less familiar with the historical and social complexities of non-Western countries and regions. It is against this background that his book -- nicely written, though -- passes as an erudite account of the Balkans. His book has the following major shortcomings: 1) it is often inaccurate in terms of historical facts and details; 2) it is plagued by Western [or rather American] ethnocentrism; and consequently, 3) it offers an unbalanced, prejudiced view of the Balkan countries -- see for instance Kaplan's dislike of Romania or Serbia, as compared to his extremely sympathetic views towards other countries. (Parenthetically, readers interested in a more balanced account of different countries from that region should read the book "Stealing from a Deep Place". Unfortunately, it's out of print but you might find it in some used bookstores or at local libraries.) Granted, this could have been a great book. As it is, I cannot recommend this book. Nor can I recommend other, more recent quasi-intellectual productions of Mr. Kaplan for I suspect them of having the same flaws as the "Balkan Ghosts". It's only to the detriment of both political circles and the American public that Mr. Kaplan - otherwise a decent writer -- has achieved the status of an expert in this country.
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Summary: Regrettable....
Review: This is a truly regrettable book. Having read the book and the accompanying reviews, it seems that the book has only reinforces the common Western condescending view of the Balkans and it's inhabitants. Entire nations are painted as down-trodden, evil, mystical, vicious, primitive, etc. The tragedy of the Balkans originates from outside colonialism and imperialism, and not from ethnic hatreds that spiral out of control. Sadly, this condescending view adopted by Kaplan and Western policymakers is the exact reason why peace cannot be negotiated in the Balkans: Westerners do not view these peoples as human beings equal to them, as people who have the right to sovereignty and independence as they do, and as peoples who have potential (and a history) of achievement. Instead, they are to be used as pawns in the struggles between the great powers of the West (USA, Germany, France, UK) and those of the East (USSR/Russia, Turkey (historically), China (currently)), to be mercilessly sacrificed for imperialist interests, and then denigrated and blamed for events they did not instigate. Kaplan writes in an incredibly racist way, particularly in his portrayal of the Greeks, as a nation that crumbled. Kaplan obviously believes that Westerners are intrinsically superior, all the while ignoring that in 800 A.D., for instance, the Byzantines and Arabs and Chinese were producing great works in art, architecture, and astronomy, while the Europeans were wallowing in feudal primitivism. The Myceneans of 1500 B.C. progressed to the Classical Greeks of 400 B.C. to the Byzantines of 700 A.D. to the Greeks under Ottoman occupation to the modern-day Greeks. Same people, different political circumstances, different cultural achievement. While Kaplan may not pound the achievement issue, his racist views are clearly seen in his "ethnic hatreds" theory, which portrays Balkan people as crazed maniacs dedicated to atrocity, revenge, and expansion. At times he tries to blame religion instead of nationality for this, labeling Orthodoxy as primitive and mystical and retarding for achievement (nevermind the scientific, mathematical, literary, and musical achievement of the Eastern Orthodox Slavic Russians, for instance). Well, I must say it is not the fault of the Orthodox that they are misunderstood by the West, and, it must be noted, Catholicism has at times been far more primitive than Orthodoxy in its dogma, practice, and participation in political events stretching from the Great Inquisition to the Bartholomew Day Massacre to the WWII genocide against the Serbs in the Independent State of Croatia. Painting the entire region as primitive and tangled in a web of hatred leads to comments as have been seen here, that suggest that these peoples should be left to their hatred and mutual extermination would result. Sadly, the seeds of conflict were sown precisely by the West and the East, by Austrian, German, French, English, Turkish, Russian, and American imperialism and oppression, by various treaties and congresses (read Congress of Berlin), and by World Wars. Perhaps WWI would not have occurred had the West not literally given Bosnia-Hercegovina (a country with no Austrians living in it) to Austria. Perhaps WWII would not have occurred had England and France actually respected the Czech nation and not tossed it to the jaws of the Nazis in Munich.
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Summary: Giving thanks for living in the US of A
Review: I suspect that most natural born citizens of the United States of America rarely give thought to the tremendous good luck of having emerged from the womb in that country. I admit that I number among them. BALKAN GHOSTS inspires me to get on my knees every night and give thanks that my homeland is the US of A. Author Robert Kaplan's book, first published in 1993, is part travel essay, part historical narrative, and part social and political commentary as he examines the past and present of Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. Unfortunately, it's nine years outdated and fails to address the most recent eruptions of ethnic violence in a disintegrated Yugoslavia. However, having said that, BALKAN GHOSTS dispersed much of the ignorance and confusion with which I'd regarded the region. A primary thread that runs throughout is the presence of long-standing, tribal animosities lurking just below the surface in each country, and which periodically erupt into spasms of violence and genocide that make the worst recorded treatment of Native Americans and Blacks in the U.S. almost tame by comparison. Serbs versus Croats. Serbs versus Albanians. Bulgarians versus Serbs. Bulgarians versus Romanians. Bulgarians versus Greeks. Macedonians versus Bulgarians. Macedonians versus Greeks. Macedonians versus Albanians. Romanians versus Russians. Romanians versus Hungarians. Roman Catholic Christians versus Eastern Orthodox Christians. Communists versus everybody. Rightists versus leftists. Everybody versus the Turks, i.e. the Muslims. And, when it's slow on a Saturday night, mount a pogrom against the Jews. As Kaplan puts it: "As always in the Balkans, bare survival provides precious little room for moral choices." Perhaps the most revealing chapters are the last three on Greece. Since the author lived there for seven years rather than just pass through, he strongly suggests that the country Westerners revere as the "cradle of Western civilization" has perhaps long since disappeared into the unfathomability of the East. Even the sunny tourist posters are suspect. (Say, honey, let's cancel that Greek Isles cruise and go to New Jersey instead.) If you're looking for instruction rather than light entertainment, BALKAN GHOSTS is just the ticket.
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