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Summary: A vivid drama of Balkans
Review: I was born in Albania, and this book was a perfect picture of the Balkans drama. The author uses a simple way of writing, with a little spice of sarcasm, giving the reader the "Socratic irony" of the Balkans. It's amazing how well he can understand the History point of view, and the dilemmas of the future. I was glad that Mr. Kaplan had understood the injustice of "the past", his knowledge in the History of the land, culture, archeology, is very good and true. I would suggest this book to those few that are searching the truth of that ancient land. To those who believe that God, blesses us all the same. Being from a certain race doesn't make you a better person, or a better Christian.
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Summary: former UN peacekeeper in Bosnia
Review: All the reviews either love this book or hate it. Why? It tells the story of a Western in this nuthouse we call Bosnia-Hercegovina during the "troubles". It is an excellent book. Period. Does it tell the full story? Is it 100 percent fair to Serbs, Croats, Muslims, Vojvodians, Kosovars, Macedonians and Slovenes? How can it be. A war is a complex event. Remember that all, that is ALL the UN peacekeepers such as myself all thought each side was as bad as the next. Yes Serbs could be brutal, Croats mean, Moslems retaliatory.........the list goes on. But in terms of a perspective of what went on before this mans eyes? I believe it 100percent because I saw the same thing.
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Summary: Idiosyncratic, Shocking, Compelling!
Review: Kaplan weaves a masterful mix of travelogue, history and sociopolitical insight into a book about his journey through the Balkans, before Kosovo became headlines. He traveled throughout the region during the 80's and wrote stories of his adventures along the way. He uses the word idiosyncratic to describe his writing, given that his style mirrors past journalists/travelers who sought to understand the root causes of social and political behavior through the lens of history. Thus, expect a solid accounting of historical narrative for each country, coupled with a mix of contemporary thought largely begotten through his conversations with local politicians, journalists, and travelers. Criticisms:
1) His approach is fairly egotistical since he believes that few Western reporters actually capture the complexity of the region, and none, except a rare few (of which he is one), ever understand the people or their real motivations. Although his assessment of Western reporters may have elements of truth, he seems to make the point numerous times throughout the book as if to create his own air of superiority.
2) Kaplan's assessment of Greece seems to carry the most weight since he lived there for seven years, whereas he sometimes only spends days in other regions. Nevertheless, he feels obliged to draw the same broad generalizations from those areas where he spoke to relatively few people, as he does from places where he met many people and spent much time. His underlying assumption throughout the book is that only a thorough understanding of history can engender a comprehension for the present state of affairs. Thus, in the countries he frequented little, he feels a fair amount of research in history allows him to make the same prognostications as he makes in areas where he has gotten to know many people. Barring the above critiques, I enjoyed the book and found myself coming back to it until complete. He complements a firm grip of historical facts with a wonderful ability to depict people and places through metaphor and descriptive writing. Here is an example, "Greeks are married to the East. The West is our mistress only. Like any mistress, the West excites and fascinates us, but our relationship with it is episodic and superficial." His ability to characterize relationships, people and places with words is refreshing. I will definitely read more Kaplan.
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Summary: Untangling the Balkan Web
Review: One of the most tragic, yet needless, legacies of the Clinton administration is America's continued involvement in the former Yugoslavia. The bombing campaigns against Serbia represent a dark chapter in American history. As Patrick Buchanan recently wrote, "This small nation did not attack us, did not threaten us, did not seek war with us. Yet, we smashed Serbia as horribly as Hitler had, for defying our demand for an unrestricted right of passage through their land, to tear off the cradle of their country, Kosovo." Prior to the military actions, Bosnia, Serbia, Albania, and Kosovo were as familiar to most Americans as the dark side of the moon. George Bush, as a candidate for President, inadvertently summed up American ignorance when he confused Slovenia with Slovakia. Yet when the Clinton administration decided to wreck havoc on these ancient countries, few reasoned proposals were put forward, little debate was offered in Congress, and no historical perspectives were provided by the media. Instead, the great simplifiers labeled the opposing sides with white hats and black hats. The Serbs were "bad" and the Bosnian Muslims and Albanians "good." There was no room for gray. Was this the whole truth? Are the conflicts and protagonists in the Balkans so easily classified into the moral code understood by most Americans? In Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History, reporter Robert D. Kaplan explored the incredibly complex mosaic of Balkan politics, intrigue, and ethnic warfare. Published in 1993, years before the first bombs were delivered by the U. S. Air Force, Kaplan showed that while good and evil certainly existed in the Balkans, the conflicting claims and tangled histories of the various parties made outside intervention by meddling outsiders a very risky proposition. Written in part as a homage to Rebecca West's Black Lamb and Grey Falcon and John Reed's The War in Eastern Europe, Balkan Ghosts is part travelogue, part historical analysis, and part polemic. Having lived in the Balkans for several years and traveled extensively in its "backwater" countries, Kaplan combines an extensive knowledge of the region with a clear and forceful narrative style. His brief description of his trip down the Danube to the impoverished town of Sfintu Gheorghe, for instance, better illustrates the hopelessness inherent in Romanian communism than volumes of comparative economic statistics and diplomatic wires. The reader can almost taste the plum brandy, see the peeling paint, and smell the cigarettes and unwashed bodies. Several key dynamics influenced the course of recent Balkan history. The first is the legacy of centuries of savage Islamic rule under the Ottoman Turks, a veritable Dark Age that was only erased from the overwhelmingly Christian populations of the Balkans in the first decades of the twentieth century. Appended as a monstrous coda to this period was the communist domination of much of the peninsula after World War II, which increased the period of subjugation by more than forty years. After having been held down for centuries, these nations are experiencing both a positive resurgence of Christian faith and a negative resurgence of murderous nationalism. The second key dynamic is the persistence of historical memories in which each population - Serb, Greek, Bulgarian, Romanian - seeks to recover land they once ruled. Serbia and Bulgaria, for instance, were both great empires at different times during the Middle Ages. Kaplan calls it the "Balkan revanchist syndrome" in which "each nation claiming as its natural territory all the lands that it held at the time of its great historical expansion." Unfortunately, these claims all overlap and there's not enough land to satisfy each and every claim. At times the results are absurd, such as the competing Greek and Bulgarian claims to Macedonia, not to mention the Macedonians' claims to Macedonia. On the other hand, the results can also be deadly, including the Balkan Wars, the Hungarian and Romanian conflict over Transylvania, and the current fighting in the former Yugoslavia that's still making headlines. The third great dynamic are the unresolved issues from World War Two, in which pro- and anti-Nazi puppet regimes and resistance groups staged infamous massacres of Jews, ethnic minorities, and each other. In Croatia, great debates continue to rage over whether or not the fascist Ustashe regime slaughtered 700,000 Serbs or "only" 60,000 Serbs. During the war, the Serbs were considered the "good guys" and the Croats and Bosnian Muslims were among the "bad guys." Added to this tremendous historical mess are the major and minor personalities profiled by Kaplan: Cardinal Alojzije Stepinac of Croatic, Serbian dictator Slobodan Milosevic, Bulgarian media flack Guillermo Angelov, Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, and the malevolent ghost of Josip Broz Tito, whose legacy has further poisoned the Balkans. Romania itself had a whole galaxy of grotesque leaders including King Carol II and his mistress Magda Lupescu, fascist leader Corneliu Zelea-Codreanu, military dictator Ion Antonescu, and the hideous President Nicolae Ceausescu and his infamous wife Elena. The only American to come off well is David Funderburk, the courageous ambassador to Romania who blew the whistle on American appeasement of the Ceausescu regime. Balkan Ghosts is a readable and entertaining introduction to Europe's most infamous morass. While Kaplan refuses to propose any specific policy objectives, his whirlwind tour of the Balkans makes it clear that it is a most complicated region. It's to America's everlasting shame that her senior policy makers didn't heed this insightful analysis prior to choosing sides and dropping bombs.
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Summary: Great history lesson of the Balkans
Review: While Balkan Ghosts can be more suitably refered to as a guide to Balkan history than as a travel guide, it is a wonderfully written book in which the author (Robert D. Kaplan) narrates the history of the Balkans through the stories of friends and aquaintances from each of four regions: Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece. Although not a long book, Kaplan efficiently describes the events that have shaped the region, from its occupation by the Ottoman and Habsberg empires to the falling of the Berlin wall. Particularly well covered is the struggle for and historical claims to Macedonia, the holocaust and Nazi occupation of Romania during WW2, and the rise and fall of Causescu.
It is an excellent history lesson of the Balkans written in a manner that is highly readable.
Great book.
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Summary: The Calm Before the Storm
Review: This is an interesting book, for many for reasons, chief among them ... it was researched just before Slovenia broke off from Yugoslavia, setting off the events that came to dominate the 1990s. Contrary to the billing, this is not a travel book (although it could pass for one): This is a book and the foolishness of misplaced priorities and the danger of modern ethnic divisions. If the book had been written later, Kaplan would surely have focused more heavily on Serbia and Bosnia. In this book, however, the most ink goes to Greece. I would like Kaplan to write an entire book on the subject...
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Summary: Disturbing Insights into a Hopeless Region
Review: In this book Robert Kaplan describes his travels in the 1980s and early 90s throughout the Balkan region, and with his insights into the area's politics and ethnic struggles, he correctly predicted the coming catastrophe that would engulf the area. Kaplan was one of the few western journalists who knew anything about the Balkans at the time, and nobody seemed to be very interested in this European backwater. Thus, the world was surprised by the orgy of war crimes and ethnic cleansing that erupted here in the 90s, but Kaplan wasn't. In the more recent introduction to the current edition, Kaplan gets rather big-headed talking about how his timely predictions came true, but not without justification, as his gifts for insight and observation gave him the prescience that nobody else had or wanted about this region. While most travel writers stick to colorful (and western-oriented) descriptions of people and places, Kaplan instead focuses on history and politics, and their deep influences on the dynamics of the regions he visits. While traveling through Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Greece, he describes the deep historical and ethnic roots of these closely related countries. Here, events of 600 years ago still cause deep resentment. A history of small ethnic groups repeatedly conquering each other through the centuries, then being destroyed by outside invaders, has led to severe racial hatred and periodic outbursts of incredible violence. Kaplan provides great insight into the perpetual desire of these peoples to return to their periods of greatest historical strength and largest territories. A disturbing example of this is Macedonia, which both Greece and Serbia would like to annex because it contains populations of their kinsmen. Meanwhile the ethnic Macedonians think they are entitled to all the lands and peoples conquered by their native son Alexander the Great back in ancient times. There is a similar problem in Kosovo, coveted by Serbia and Albania for the same reasons. Also of note is Kaplan's section on Greece, which proves without a doubt that this nation is not the classical stereotype that the West thinks it is. Greece is far more similar to Turkey and the Middle East than to the mythical realm of Socrates and Aristotle. And they have the same insane and hateful politics and ethnic resentment as their neighbors Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia. The main problem throughout the region is that all these peoples live interspersed among each other, and would just love to force everyone else out and build their own pure kingdoms. The logistical impossibilities of this never stopped anyone though, resulting in many occurrences of mass genocide, which most of the ethnic groups in the region have both committed and suffered from at various points in history. For many miserable decades, the Ottoman and Soviet empires forced everybody in the region to shut up, which merely redirected the people's resentment toward these outside rulers. Nobody in the West should have been surprised when the people turned back to destroying each other when these empires collapsed. The most disturbing realization in this book is that (except for the Turks) these small, self-destructive, and murderous ethnic groups are not that different from each other, but that has not stopped them from a thousand years of back-and-forth enslavement and genocide. For those who think the world is destined to become a happy melting pot in which everyone drops their differences and lives in harmony - we could learn a lot from this region.
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Summary: good overall, but at times incorrect
Review: There's some real boners here, e.g. Kaplan says that Istanbul comes from "in stin poli" (the Greek for "to the city") when it actually comes from the Turkish corruption of the word Constantinople (just as, he notes correctly, Izmir comes from Smyrna). He also claims that Albanian is unrelated to any known language, when even a glance at the words for the numbers 1-10 will tell you it's an Indo-European language. He's also embarrassingly fond of the vile Rebecca West, who's book "Black Lamb and Grey Falcon" is little more that a preciously ornamented written record of her prejudices against the German and Turkish cultures. Anyone who fawningly refers to her again and again as "Dame Rebecca" needs to have his critical faculties sharpened up. However, this book is a good place to start if you're embarking on a study of the Balkans, whether you want to know about their history under the Ottomans, or under Austria-Hungary, or under communism, or under siege in the 90's. Kaplan has a good view of the big picture and the historical trends, and also provides an evocative travelogue of his experiences throughout the region. He also has a real eye for the gory detail, so be warned. I would have to say that, if you're interested in the subject matter, you should definitely read this book. But keep the criticisms in mind.
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Summary: Robert Kaplan is a must-read author....
Review: This is Robert Kaplan's first big book (i.e. mainstream press, wide circulation). He's had a knack for writing a particular kind of narrative: part history, part travellogue, part political science, at very particular times that ususally end up being right about as the world falls apart where he is. Needless to say, his last book was about the Middle East. This book is now several years old and parallels Rebecca West's classic work about the ethnic tension in the Balkans at the end of the Cold War. From speaking to friends who were there at the time, they claim that it is a well-balanced and well-researched account; I, myself, can vouch to it's being well-written, timely, and important. This is the sort of book that students should be forced to read their first year in college: it's not overly challenging in how it's constructed, but is challenging in subject matter, and the late rinsight it would give you into an academic discipline. This is one of my favorite books: I recommend that everyone read every book by Kaplan....
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Summary: The past is never dead. It's not even past.
Review: This is a superb travel book: picaresque, impressionistic, anecdotal, seamlessly weaving 1000 years of history into the narrative. Given that it was published in 1993 and mostly written about 1990 or 1991, it is also more than a little prescient. The author's recounting of numerous pogroms, massacres, and other dark deeds in the Balkans is not gratuitous. The Serbs, Croats, Albanians, Bulgars, Greeks, Romanians and others that the author encounters carry the baggage of these grievances. The fact that Slobodan Milosevic could catapult himself to fame and, for a while, fortune by making inflammatory speeches about a Serb defeat at the hands of the Turks 600 years ago in order to stir up animus against the Albanians suggests that the author is anything but cynical in his assessment of the power of these grievances.
The few reviews trashing this book are either unfair or ethnic agenda-driven. Some complain that it's not a policy-wonk analysis or a ten volume academic tome parsing Balkan history. It succeeds brilliantly at what it clearly intends to be: travel writing which highlights various historical facets of a complex mosaic for the reasonably intelligent general reader. The ethnic complaints on this website by what appear to be Serb, Romanian and other tribal readers hilariously recapitulate the attitudes of many characters whom the author encounters. They and they alone are the true victims; how could any observer be ambivalent or express any sympathy for their tribal enemies ?
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