Rating: 
Summary: the myths we live by
Review: If there would have been a possibility to rate this book with zero, it would be too much. It is difficult to say whether it's worse that people write or read books such as Kaplan's. This one is not only prejudicial and biased, but I would almost call it rascist. Kaplan talks about very sensitive and complicated things as if discussing the last Christmas' turkey. True, it is so much easier to believe in one's own moral (etc.) superiority and find the rest of the world, especially if this rest is called "Balkans", pathetic and degrading, portraying people living there as some sort of recently born savages who haven't learned yet how to use the fork and the knife. I wonder if Kaplan had anything else on his mind when writing this book besides deepening some more of the prejudices already existing and earning enormous amounts of money on someone else's misery. It is he who is one of those Balkan ghosts, and we can hardly expect anything better for the region to happen, as long as people educate themselves through this sort of books.
Rating: 
Summary: Kaplan is a great writer yet has his own prjudice
Review: Many praise Kaplan for "revealing the truth" about the Balkans, but what he really does is to perpetuate old myths and stereotypes of the Balkans. There are no ancient hatreds, all hatreds are modern creations of the past hundred or so years. Kaplan's mystical presentation of the Balkans only serves to continue long held and inaccurate and pejorative notions of the Balkan people. In the final analysis what Kaplan produces is part and parcel of a long ethnocentric tradition of negative western writting about the Balkans.
Rating: 
Summary: Balkan Hatreds-A Psychohistory
Review: In the most vivid, chilling and memorable prose Kaplan shows us why there will be no easy solutions in the Balkans, and why we are no closer to peace than we were seven years ago when the war captured world headlines for the first time.
Rating: 
Summary: Good observations,captures colloquial realities.
Review: Good observations,captures colloquial realities,not historical undercurrents. The book is a good read for first exposure but as any book it must be read critically and assimilated accordingly. The region is fairly complex and not amenable to digestible slogans. The observations made by the naked eye probably capture graphically 80% of current historical trajectories. Scholarly analysis however place paths in their optimal context and illuminate rich subcontexts. While it is true that for the "hoi polloi" for example, Greece or Hellas is not the place one would see the nine muses dancing on Parthenon's edges, the dialectical protomass of hellenic thinking is slow burning underneath the sludge of centuries of cultural stagnation, in a direct line of continuity from the city states agoras. It can be discerned in the most unusual places: Second rate mischievious comedy movies of the 50s and 60s ( a light example ), an old folk song ( Erwtokritos), etc. In another interesting manifestation from colloquial life, in keeping with the books travelogue, is an urban mother's scolding of her young daughter to touch not a butterfly that wondered in the house since they usually carry souls of the dead ( echoes of advice from thousands years before ). At any rate, I happen to be most familiar with the Hellenic part of the world and offer these trivial examples as a small indication that there is more than meets the eye. How pertinent is what lurks underneath the surface to historical genesis or how accurately observations made in a decade reflect a permanent component of a nation's current being and future prospects is something to ponder on.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent report on tradition and Balkan-style politics.
Review: "Balkan Ghosts" is politics, it is history, it is a travel guide. A beautiful descriptive prose, with no ambition for political analysis. Robert Kaplan brings out the typical character in every Balkan nation and society, and writes about the things that innocently clung to the back of his western-world mind and eyes, while travelling through the region. Through his encounters and visions, he manages to show much irony, yet in a respectful manner; it is the freshness and simplicity in his young view that allow an incisive report on old tradition. Kaplan visited tha farther corners of Romania, where Romanians do not go, and he tells about the Jews in Salonika, something Greeks do not talk about. A book that could have only been written by someone who knew the people, and lived by their sides. The result is an excellent journey through fascinating stories, about an exciting part of the world. A must-read for everyone who's been in the Balkans, wants to go, or seeks to understand the developments that took place during the 90's.
Rating:
Summary: Good travelogue, but not serious historical analysis
Review: Kaplan provides a very good, very enjoyable, and somewhat informative account of his experiences travelling through the Balkans. His historical references and background explanations are somewhat random and given mostly where they are relevant to the narrative of his own travels. However, he must be read with considerable caution, for two reasons. The first is his tendancy to generalize about entire countries and regions from his own unique experiences. I was in the same countries he was in at the same time, and my experiences were very different from his, as every travellers experiences are. Thus he needs a little more objectivity. Secondly, he shows a few prejudices, such as the idea that the Balkan region, which happens to be, conveniently, his own area of study, is the cauldron of all human history; that the Romanians are automatically endowed with "Latin" passion simply because their language is distantly related to French and Italian; and finally his unspoken but very strong anti-Turkish stance, which he undoubtedly, and understandably, absorbed in his many years in the area controlled by the Ottomans. All in all, though, it is well worth reading, as long as you keep in mind his need for more objectivity.
Rating:
Summary: A well written balanced view of the history of the Balkans
Review: It is the story of a series of journeys the author made in the Balkans around 1990. It weaves together the stories of meeting people in the seldom visited countries such as Bulgaria and Macedonia and the history of each country. That is, he tells the history which is relevant to his purpose which is, to show how through time this area has had major influences on world history and at the same time has suffered as the Austro-Hungarian empire, the Ottoman Empire, Russia and many others have conquered the region. Much of what he writes about is not known or has been foregotten in the west. It was a very prescient book that predicted the blow up in Albania. It was written in 1993. I found it to be captivating in its immediacy and could not put it down for two days, reading in my spare time.
Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Travelogue Filled with Powerful Images
Review: It is interesting to read comments by other readers. Some accuse Kaplan of bias, but there is no consensus on just what he is biased for or against. He may hate Turks, or Communists, or Serbs, or Greeks. I suppose if Kaplan has managed to offend all of the groups in the region, he has probably done a good job of maintaining his integrity. If he has an agenda, it may be his human outrage against stubborn blindness and barbarism. He locates the Serbs and their sometimes primitive ways in the mysticism and eastern aesthetic of the Orthodox church. But he doesn't fail to note that even a mayor of urbane Vienna can be a vicious anti-Semite who provided inspiration to Hitler.The portrait of Croatian Archbishop Stepinac is nuanced and enlightening. It may outrage both Croat and Serb, but he identifies Stepinac's failing as an almost monstrous combination of political naiveté and narrow-minded piety. Stepinac was perhaps a fool, and perhaps a coward. His legacy is controversial because the positions he took in life were confusing and contradictory. Similarly, the bleak depictions of Albania, the eternal victim; of Macedonia, the eternal battleground; and Bulgaria, whose strategic decisions are distinguished for being uncommonly calamitous, offer deep and bitter insights into the Balkan tragedy. That this century is ending much as it began in these countries is a cold condemnation of all parties. In a sense it is remote and irrelevant to criticize Kaplan for the lens he uses to focus on these issues when the true problem is precisely the short-sightedness that makes it too easy for people in the region to accuse others of hatreds and bias without a shred of self-awareness. It is these people who perpetuate the disaster, not Kaplan and his book. Kaplan is an effectual writer; he summons the muse of Rebecca West to good effect. His images, such as the introductory pre-dawn scene in the Kosovo monastery and the conversation with Milovan Djilas, are deep and powerful. In one fascinating passage he follows a thread from the 1878 Congress of Berlin all the way through World War I and beyond. History is immediate and accessible in the Balkans. Events have consequences, usually unforeseen, often global. These issues do matter. The book is a good one.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: Kaplan writes with the finely-honed skill of the very best journalism can offer. His talent for description and story-telling can not be questioned. He is clearly a scholar willing to dig for more. A writer can only give perceptions. I believe history is as Mark Twain called it, Fluid Prejudice. History as told, as studied, has the limitation of being from a singular viewpoint. This author has done his homework and braved the terrain to give the reader his own first-hand account. He has told his story with a compelling alacrity and grace, in spite of the tragedy and horror and complexity which is woven throughout this attempt to illuminate the history of the people of the Balkans. I am recommending it to everyone I know. Bravo, Mr. Kaplan.
Rating:
Summary: This book rivets and enlightens.
Review: For the uninformed and uninitiated, where do you draw the line between stereotypes, personal biases, and realities? People who know scarcely anything about this part of Europe but are willing to make an effort to understand the current situation in its historical context deserve to read Kaplan's book and form their personal opinion. I am neither historian, diplomat, nor politician, but I find that reading books like "Balkan Ghosts" redeems me from total ignorance and potential harm and hurt for simply not understanding what happens or had happened in this part of the world. Kaplan has done a commendable job in relating his extensive travels and encounters with people in the Balkans, while digging their long and fascinating histories; I can surely find other resources if I feel like I am not getting the best possible truth(s), but I know from reading this book that this is such a very reasonable start. After all, it is not very often that we encounter a book that takes us to the mountain recesses of Bucovina, or tells us about the hotly disputed Thrace and the triple junctions of Macedonia, Greece, and Bulgaria, and even attempts to deromanticize Greece but at the same time persuades the reader of the extent of Greece's glory to the Byzantine Era. Kaplan has gone to places where most of us would not dare go, and I am grateful for his efforts in exploring the region, observing the landscape, the art and architecture, intermingling with the people, and understanding their sociohistorical contexts.
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