Rating: 
Summary: Gore-Tex in Bucharest
Review: Reading this book, I couldn't shake the image of Kaplan, clad in brightly-coloured Gore-Tex and carrying a giant telephoto camera, wandering around the poorest region of Europe with his eyes and mouth wide open. No doubt the locals gawped right back at him, and it's remarkable that he survived the experience. Go native he certainly did not. He stayed in the best hotels the Balkans could offer (which at the time made Days Inn look like the Ritz). And this shows in the writing, which barely scratches the surface. It's handy as an introduction to the area for people who don't do much travelling, but some of the conclusions Kaplan tries to make (such as the tenuous comparisons with the Middle East) fail to inspire. If you want an example of great travel writing, try Kapuscinski's "Imperium" (about the former Soviet Union) or anything by Colin Thubron. Mind you, this average effort is the only example of contemporary travel-writing on the Balkans that I know of.
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Summary: The Balkans in beauty and horror
Review: This is an unforgettable book. It is a strictly personal testimony of one of the most troubled parts of the world, in all human history. Kaplan is not just a journalist, nor a historian, nor a political analist. He is an extremely well-read man, informed about the place he is travelling around (something you can not say about most journalists). Do not expect to find utmost objectivity here. Kaplan does not pretend to be objective, just fair. What is the key to his success? It is this: his readings, the fact that he establishes personal bonds with people who give him insights and, most of all, his intelligence. Kaplan is never sentimental, but he is sympathetic and really tries to understand what goes on. Of course, he filters facts through his Western background. It is the honest thing to do. If you read this, you will gain a lot of ground in understanding the uncomprehensible things that happen, even today as I write, in that crucial corner of the world. Kaplan warned the world about what was going to happen there. It did. And now, all we have is this excellent account of what the Balkans are, why, and how. Kaplan follows the path traced by other writers in his genre, like Ryszard Kapuscinski and Rebecca West herself. We need more of these witnesses to history, even if we do not agree with them all the time.
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Summary: An impressive achievement
Review: This beautiful, remarkably well-written travelogue takes a careful look at the modern history and current (1993) situation of the Balkan countries.The emphasis is on people, including the clearly well-intentioned (Bishop Strossmay, Queen Marie of Romania), the obviously evil- minded (Ceausescu), and the morally ambiguous (Stepinac, Papandreou). Kaplan expends a lot of effort to show how fringe groups have been manipulated by demagogues for politically murderous purposes. He shows how these countries have been used and abused by outside powers: the Habsburgs, the Nazis, the Soviets. He also pays respectful tribute to Rebecca West and Patrick Leigh Fermor, his pedecessors in trying to make sense of the region. For me the part on Greece (the last section) is enormously informative. It talks poingnantly about the formerly strong Jewish presence in Salonika, the motion picture boom that made the world more aware of the beauties of Greece, and the machinations of PASOK and its leaders whose venality and self-interest have clearly worked against the wellbeing of the Greek people. This book is an empressive achievement.
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Summary: A Great Explanation of a Confusing Conflict
Review: The problems in the Balkans, former Yugoslavia, has dominated the news since the mid-1990's. Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Albanians, Eastern Orthodox, Muslims, the issues are complex and there are many players. It is not an easy issue to figure out. In 1989, Kaplan visited many of the regions in the Balkans and simply talked to people from different ethnic groups, areas, and religions. The result is a informative, easy to read, history of the region and its conflicts that was way ahead of its time. In Reading Balkan Ghosts, you see first hand how the various groups in the region feel about each other. YOu see first hand how old hatred, very old hatred in some cases is the root cause of todays problems. Grudges going back to the days of the Ottoman Empire are still held. If you want to learn why there are problems in the Balkans, what these problems are than read this book. Kaplan is a great author. All his books are great reads, and unfortunately too true. Kaplan predicted what happened in the former Yugoslavia and his other books warn of the coming global anarchy from places like the Balkans, Africa etc. I highly recommend this book.
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Summary: A Wealth of Perspective
Review: After watching the nightly news coverage of various Balkan conflicts for the past decade, I still asked "Why?" without any answers. In one eloquent volume, Robert D. Kaplan has illuminated the dark rooms of my confusion by a direct dialogue with the people involved. The author displays a deft control of perspective, effectively blending contemporary interviews with dual historical views. From his description of landscape and architecture to his intimate encounters with the flesh-and-blood participants of the Balkan drama, Mr. Kaplan paints a living portrait that strips away the notion of a recent unrest, and replaces it with a clear understanding of ongoing history.
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Summary: Essential Reading
Review: Kaplan is a prescient reporter whose on-site sociology and inspired travel writing merge with a keen sense of history to become invaluable. And most of what he foresees in a region soon becomes the central themes of headlines and realpolitik debates. Important notice to business readers: Don't engage in commerce and investment in the Balkans until you've digested the invaluable insights in this text.
Rating: 
Summary: Not to be taken seriously
Review: Kaplan's book is very is extremely well-written, and easy to read. It's also easy to get drawn into the author's narrative and take everything he says as given. However, Kaplan is not as well-informed on his subject (basically the entire Balkan peninsula) as he thinks he is. With the exception of Greece, where he spent a lot of time, and perhaps Bulgaria, he doesn't know a whole lot about the region and fills in the gaps in his knowledge with stereotypes drawn from other authors or by transposing the opinions a few people he talked to onto entire populations--often giving distorted impressions of e.g. the Serbs, Croats or Romanians. Nothing is more indicative of Kaplan's essentially unscholarly approach to such a complex topic than the reading materials he says he used to prepare himself for his journeys: for Yugoslavia he depends on Rebecca West's pre-World War II travelogue "Black Lamb and the Grey Falcon," a biased book itself, and based on her rather short (3-4 week) sojourn in Yugoslavia; even more troubling is his use of Bram Stoker's "Dracula" as a guide for Romania. Stoker was never in Romania (or rather Transylvania) nor did he ever intend his book to be taken as an accurate view of southeastern Europe; he was simply trying to provide some atmosphere for his novel, and his portrayal of Transylvania draws heavily on Victorian-era prejudices about the Balkans as an eerie and savage place. Yet Kaplan repeatedly cites Stoker as though he is a legitimate authority on Romania. This is, to say the least, irresponsible. As other reviewers on this page noted, the most disturbing thing is that this book's popularity ensured that it helped formulate opinions among broad sections of the public, including policy-makers.
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Summary: Why the West has failed in the Balkans
Review: This beautifully written but dangerous book offers a simplistic look at the region's history. Kaplan ascribes the recent troubles in the Balkans to ancient ethnic hatreds, making them sound inevitable. This book documents only the region's darker past, ignoring much evidence of ethnic tolerance, or at least co-existence. (See Michael Sells's "A Bridge Betrayed: Religion and Genocide in Bosnia - Hercegovina.") Kaplan's book also neglects the extent to which it was demagogic ultranationalist leaders in the 1990s who manipulated the Balkan peoples into ethnic warfare. The superficial interpretation of Balkan history regurgitated by Kaplan explains why Bush then Clinton refused to act in time to avert the Bosnian genocide. When one sees such crimes as inevitable and the region as filled with people only interested in slaughtering one another, one doesn't try to distinguish perpetrators from victims or intervene to save those victims. This is the most dangerous book of the 1990s.
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Summary: If You Only Read One Book on the Balkans, This Is It
Review: My Review of Balkan Ghosts is simple. If you want to read the best book on the Balkans and want to know why, what is going on in that region of the world happened, then read this book. This book clearly shows, and predicted what happened to cause the horrible conflict that has turned the Balkans into a Powderkeg again. This is a great book. Kaplan is a great writer and this is a great book. I recommend it highly.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating and truly insightful
Review: Kaplan understands an often-lost key to writing about current affairs: knowing the past is vital to understanding the present. While you may not agree with all of his conclusions, there's an admirable amount of thought behind them and top-notch writing skill. This is a valuable resource to understanding the Balkans, past and present, and a gateway to other similarly valuable works. Highly recommended.
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