The National Question in Yugoslavia

In a brilliant analysis of this complex and sensitive national question, Ivo Banac provides a comprehensive introduction to Yugoslav political history.

Ivo Banac is Professor of History and Master of Pierson College, Yale University.

Neither Banac's admirers nor his critics focused on the ways his work engaged with debates about the nature of nationalism as a historical phenomenon, or with its warnings about the future.

Gale Stokes:

The greatest strength of Banac's book is the thoroughness and accuracy with which he recounts the historical background, personal factors, and ideological structures within which Yugoslav politicians worked. Along with its other virtues, the book is a pleasure to read. Banac has flair. In scope, detail, and presentation, this book finds few equals in the literature of Southeast Europe. It is simply one of the finest studies of the region that Western scholarship has produced.

Susan L. Woodward:

Ivo Banac's study of the origins of the national question in Yugoslavia provides the substantive content necessary to return to Yugoslav experience and to identify the national differences that are being 'accommodated' by current political reform. It is also an excellent starting point for those who want to study actual cultures of rule in contemporary Yugoslavia.

Michael B. Petrovich:

Ivo Banac has written the most comprehensive, judicious, and objective account of the origins, development, and politics of the Yugoslav national question up to the aftermath of World War I that exists in any language. What especially enhances the value of this account is not only the author's thorough grasp of the political intricacies of his subject but his erudite command of the cultural factors.

Patrick F. R. Artisien:

Banac's history of the peoples of Yugoslavia is comprehensive, detached, and well timed. Banac begins his inquiry with an examination of the terminology of nation, nationhood, and nationality, which then proceeds to apply to the South Slavs, drawing a distinction between the national identity of the Serbs, Croats, and Bulgars, which was acquired before the development of modern nationalism, and that of the Slovenes, Montenegrins, Macedonians, and Muslims from Bosnia-Hercegovina, whose national consciousness developed only in the nineteenth century.

Charles Jelavich:

Anyone interested in contemporary Yugoslavia must read this excellent volume because no other book in any language sets forth the issues in such stark and realistic terms. Unlike many other books on the South Slav nationality problem, which analyze it more from the perspective of the Serbs, Banac seeks to restore the balance by looking at the problems through the eyes of the other South Slavs, in particular the Croats, and this is the great strength of the volume. Banac's outstanding book tells the story with great clarity and deep understanding and appreciation for South Slavic affairs.

An indispensable book on Yugoslavia and one of the most impressive works on Eastern Europe for decades.