Product Description
Balkan Anschluss tackles the thorny issue of the disappearance of Montenegro as a sovereign state in the course of and as a result of the First World War, a problem with clear contemporary relevance. In particular, Pavlovic investigates the ambiguous and often troubled relationship between two "Serb states," Montenegro and Serbia. The ultimate conclusion this book makes is that Montenegro was not so much "liberated" as it was "annexed" by Serbia at the end of World War I and that the people of Montenegro were denied an opportunity to exercise self-determination according to internationally recognized norms. ... Read more

Book Description
This book analyses eleven of Varlam Shalamov's Kolyma Tales from a neo-Formalist perspective. The tales are a testament to Shalamov's seventeen years in Stalin's Gulags, and were written in an attempt to draw attention to this period in Soviet history. Nathaniel Golden has primarily utilised L. M. O'Toole's work Structure, Style and Interpretation in the Russian Short Story as the major basis for analysis, but has incorporated many other Formalist and indeed Structuralist methods.

The tales in each chapter are analysed by means of five major Formalist categories: Narrative Structure, Point of View, Fabula and Sujet, Characterisation and Setting. This process highlights many of Shalamov's ideas and motifs in the tales. He frequently uses techniques of estrangement and paradox to augment camp experience, reflecting his belief that there is no moral, emotional or spiritual gain in suffering. He habitually employs a `focaliser' to tell the tale from a near-death perspective and in consequence distances the author from events. His literary background is prominent within the tales, where he occasionally alludes to earlier Russian authors and their works to indicate the recurring nature of Man's fallibility against the Gulag background. His characters are often simply portrayed yet representative of flawed heroes and the baseness of human beings subjected to an existence in extremis. His settings are minimal, yet form a major part of his message: Man is compared to nature, but nature is powerful and able to regenerate itself, whereas Man's existence is temporary and futile.

This book therefore, shows that the Formalist approach is indeed still valid as a literary tool of analysis as well as showing that upon the 50th year of Stalin's death, Varlam Shalamov's time has arrived. ... Read more

Book Description
A unique contribution to the continuing debate over one of the most important international conflicts to emerge as the century turned, Schwartz offers a readable, profound, and multifaceted overview of the long Albanian-Serbian controversy over the troubled province, drawing on sources previously ignored by non-Balkan authors. He presents an original and detailed analysis of the collapse of Yugoslavia, a penetrating critique of Western inaction in the face of the long-festering Kosovo crisis, and a rare, unblinkered diagnosis of the weakness of Western and international policies in the Balkans following armed intervention.

Features include:
** Unique perspective of a long-term resident in the region.
** Draws on information unavailable to non-resident authors.
**Highly readable yet thorough history of the ethnic violence in the Balkans. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Objectivity Might Be the Key Word Describing this Book
Considering its location, in the continent considered as the hearth of modern knowledge, culture and science, there hardly exists any other place about which the world knows less than Kosovo. So every attempt to enlighten this obscure part of Europe should be congratulated. The matter becomes even more important after one of the most recent wars, where NATO, the world's biggest and best-equipped military force, was involved.
Schwartz begins with discussing the origins of Albanians and Slavs, their first historical evidences about the inhabitation of the region, and their encounter from the Slavic invasion of the Balkans throughout the Ottoman era. He then goes through the post Balkan Wars and the two World Wars - when Serbia conquered and consolidated its rule over Kosovo, backed by the victorious powers, as a reward for being their war ally. Kosovo was added to the big newly formed YugoSlavia, and with the isolation of its motherland Albania by the communist regime of Enver Hoxha who did or could do nothing about Kosovo; it was left alone like an orphan amidst Slavs, its eternal enemy. The author in the following section focuses on this part properly, since it forced Kosovars (as the Kosovo Albanians are called) to rely on and organize among themselves, under the continuously growing discrimination and pressure by Slavs. Lastly, Schwartz analyses the post-communist period, overloaded with significant developments for this case. Loss of trust to nonviolence resistance, which was surprisingly "rewarded" with massacres by the Milosevic regime, led to the formation of Kosovo Liberation Army (UÇK). This is the starting point of armed conflict between Serbs and Albanians, which brought NATO airpower on the skies of Yugoslavia for 78 days.
The author could do better in the last chapter 1999 - Intervention and its aftermath. He is not able to make a clear analysis of the consequences of the intervention, probably because time is needed for these fresh events, whose impact goes on even today, to become pure history. He could also give some alternative or prediction about the final status of Kosovo, which is still unresolved and unknown even to those interested most: the Kosovars, the West, and the Balkan countries.
But Schwartz has special merits for successfully referring to and examining both Slavic and Albanian non/official sources, considering the huge inconsistencies among them, to make the book clear and highly readable. He also seems to successfully reach his goal of writing this book, giving a "background to a war", by analyzing and combining history, culture and even myths or other psychological factors, which contributed to the formation of the identities involved in the conflict. He extracts old and new, well-known and usually unknown facts and evidences to many of the Westerners and even domestic inhabitants, evaluates and serves them in a easily comprehendible fashion to all readers who want to have an insight in the case.
So the book deserves an important place among many of the books that are being written recently about Kosovo. It is highly recommendable especially to those exploring the conflict in depth since "it is drawn on sources previously ignored by non-Balkan authors" and maintains an impartial position, different from that of Balkan writers who advocate their own or particular group/countries' interests.
Klediol Murati, June 11, 2003
IR Student, Middle East Technical University

Kosovo (Anthem Slavic and Russian Studies)
Only intellectual blindness may prevent reader to instantly recognize Stephen Schwartz subjective and groundless interpretation of history.
His comic conclusions, and irresponsible pro-Albanian propaganda are only surpassed by his blunt and mindless hatred of anything and everything that is Slavic.
Don't waste your money...

Exceptional historical insight in region
KOSOVO: Background to a War (UK) by Stephen Schwartz provides a concise yet detailed account of the main historical and cultural political currentsthat created the necessity for the NATO intervention and occupation.Schwartz is an especially astute observer of telling historical parallelsand refined ethnic sensibilities, probably because he speaks the languagesand makes himself available to discuss the political and religiousimplications with soldiers, politicians, scholars and common people. Thestudy represents a political analysis of the central issues between theSerbs and Albanians that continues to exasperate the area.

Unlike manypolitical commentaries this work provides glimpses of the history, culture,literature, poetry and passion of the people making this account rich readwith the narrative flow of a novel.

Exceptional political insight into Kosovo
KOSOVO: Background to a War by Stephen Schwartz provides aconcise yet detailed account of the main historical and cultural political currents that created the necessity for the NATO intervention and occupation.Schwartz is an especially astute observer of telling historical parallels and refined ethnic sensibilities, probably because he speaks the languages and makes himself available to discuss the political and religious implications with soldiers, politicians, scholars and common people. The study represents a political analysis of the central issues between the Serbs and Albanians that continues to exasperate the area. Unlike many political commentaries this work provides glimpses of the history, culture, literature, poetry and passion of the people making this account rich read with the narrative flow of a novel. ... Read more

Book Description
The latest developments in the countries of eastern Europe, including the rise of authoritarian tendencies in Russia and Belarus, as well as the victory of the democratic 'Orange Revolution' in Ukraine, pose important questions about the origins of the East Slavic nations and the essential similarities or differences between their cultures. This book traces the origins of the modern Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian nations by focusing on premodern forms of group identity among the Eastern Slavs. It also challenges attempts to 'nationalize' the Rus' past on behalf of existing national projects, laying the groundwork for a new understanding of the premodern history of Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The book covers the period from the Christianization of Kyivan Rus' in the tenth century to the reign of Peter I and his eighteenth-century successors, by which time the idea of nationalism had begun to influence the thinking of East Slavic elites. ... Read more

Book Description
The complete history of the Slovak Armed Forces during World War II is covered here in this book. Hundreds of period photos, tables, maps, color uniform plates, orders of battle, strength returns/losses abound. This is an academic and authoritative study of the Slovak military, including the Hlinka Guard & Air Force, as well as the Army and Gendarmerie. The political and military history of Tiso's regime is included, as well as a section on the Shoah (Holocaust). ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

A useful textbook that shoud not, however, be your first
William Schmalstieg's AN INTRODUCTION TO OLD CHURCH SLAVIC is a primer of the earliest attested Slavonic language, vital for understanding the development of the Indo-European languages and the reconstruction of their common ancestor, and useful for studying the development of Christianity among the Slavs. In addition to a grammar synchronically tracking the development of Common Slavonic and Old Church Slavonic, it also includes a collection of readings so that students can put their knowledge to work with real texts.

The grammar is, for the most part, satisfying as a reference, though better introductions to the language can be found elsewhere. I was especially happy with his references to Lithuanian, since the possibly common heritage of the Baltic and Slavonic branches is a matter of great importance. While OCS works are normally given in Latin transliteration (retaining the yer letters from Cyrillic), tables of conjugation and declension use the Cyrillic alphabet, and there is also a small layout of the Glagolitic script.

Schmalstieg's work has some problems. Instead of presenting a normalized view of the language and saving matters of debate for later, he essentially begins the book by laying out every disagreement before he even presents the phonemic system which has sparked such polemic. I think that a student who has never studied OCS before would be quite lost for the first fifty pages of the work. Schmalstieg's style is also somewhat unpolished, the text did not make a complete transition from lecture notes to a text for the ages. Finally, the selection of texts is mostly Biblical, which won't test students fully because one already knows the English of such famous passages as the Sermon on the Mount; texts such as saints' lives or prayers would have been a bit more challenging.

An additional failing, which is by no means limited to Schmalstieg's primer, is that the work does not discuss the evolution of the Proto-Indo-European laryngeals in the Slavonic branch. Schmalstieg wrote a paper in 1986 called "Monophthongizations--more probable than laryngeals!" which perhaps means that he does not even believe in their existence, but the time has come for an introduction to OCS that includes laryngeals in the view of the proto-language.

If you have no prior experience with this sexiest of early Indo-European languages, I would recommend Nandris' HANDBOOK OF OLD CHURCH SLAVONIC I: Grammar (London: The Athlone Press, 1959). That a truly impressive work, equally useful as primer and as reference grammar, and written in a clear style all linguistics works should emulate. If you read Russian, Voylova's STAROSLAVJANSKIJ JAZYK is a good introduction as well. One might also mention the old chesnut that is Lunt's OLD CHURCH SLAVONIC GRAMMAR, but since its examination of the language is synchronic, it is of limited utility for the Indo-Europeanist. Schmalstieg's work is worth acquiring, but not as the very first textbook.

Title Tells it
Note that the title of this book is "Introduction to Old Church Slavic", not "Old Church Slavonic."It is an exercise in historical linguistics.If that's your interest, it covers the subject in considerable depth and you'd be hard pressed to find another book written in English to do it so thoroughly.

However, if your interest is in reading Eastern Orthodox material, this book won't be much help, except in a very roundabout way.Be advised. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's preservation reformatting program. ... Read more