Balkans into Southeastern Europe: A Century of War and Transition - Softcover

'When the Berlin Wall fell, South-Eastern Europe merged once again with a distinct identity of its own. It is the great achievement of this erudite comparative study - written by a scholar who is at home with the culture of the region as its economy - to explore the shared problems of the region in the years before the Second World War, and to see positive developments emerging from the bloody experience of post-communist transition.' - Geoffrey Swain, University of the West of England, UK
 
'Lampe's book thus provides a reliable comparative synthesis, as well as a strong basis, for future scholarship.' - Holly Case, Austrian History Yearbook 39
 
'Lampe...presents a plausible and coherent argument, rich in detail and supported with well-chosen and well-presented economic data, in support of the view that the Balkans, in their development and ultimate destination - the EU - do not significantly differ from the rest of Europe.' - Aleksandar Pavković, SEER, The Slavonic and East European Review

'...an excellent survey of twentieth-century Balkan history.' – Raymond Detrez, European History Quarterly

Ethnic conflict, disputed borders, forced migration and foreign intervention scarred the countries from Romania south to Greece during the decades surrounding the two world wars. The bloody break-up of the former Yugoslavia, and the region's wider struggles with a post-Communist transition, suggest continuing Balkan burdens for the peoples and states of a region which has traditionally been seen as separate from Europe. Yet the advance of Bulgaria and Romania to join Slovenia and Greece as members of the European Union, with prospects now pending for Croatia and the rest of the region, is the latest and most positive in a series of larger connections to the Continent.

John R. Lampe traces the history of Southeastern Europe across the twentieth century, from the explosive mixture of Balkan states and imperial borderlands before the First World War, through the trials that their successors faced during two world wars, the Cold War, and finally the wars of Yugoslavia's dissolution. His fresh look at the full twentieth century connects these wartime decades to the postwar transitions that followed, finding their main features, for good or ill, distinctly European. Lampe argues that not only the destructive ethnic nationalism and authoritarian regimes of the 1990s, but also the more recent rise of political pluralism and liberal market reforms, have their roots in European ideologies and institutions.

Readable and authoritative, this is an essential introduction to the recent history of a troubled region.