Yugoslavia as History: Twice there was a Country - Softcover

'This elegantly crafted volume by one of the foremost students of the Balkans is an important contribution to both Yugoslav and comparative historiography. The book will engage both scholarly and lay audiences, and can serve as an important text for academic courses.' Andrew C. Janos, University of California, Berkeley

'Lampe provides a wide-ranging, perceptive analysis, which is one of the few to address the problems of inter-war as well as post-war Yugoslavia. It distills complex issues into intelligible and readable prose and, importantly, it illustrates Yugoslavia's strengths as well as its ultimately fatal weaknesses. Lampe's book will be an invaluable asset to all those who have an interest in Yugoslavia's history.' Richard Crampton, University of Oxford

'Lampe has the marvellous capacity to write in such a way that precision and detail in the description of events survive the compression of the historical account which is inevitable in a survey of this kind. ... For both the undergraduate student and the general reader interested in making sense of recent Balkan history, and for the more research-oriented reader looking for a succinct orientation to the main problems, arguments and sources in the area, Lampe's book will be an extremely useful resource.' John B. Allcock, University of Bradford

'Yugoslavia as History sketches an indispensable historical background to the cataclysmic events that swept away an entire country. Lampe's book is a corrective to both the hostile and nostalgic approaches to Yugoslavia. The real story is much more complex, and Lampe tells it with insight, judgement, and clarity.' Warren Zimmermann

Yugoslavia as History is the first book to trace the bloody demise of the former Yugoslavia through its history and its earliest roots. A Yugoslav idea had already emerged before the First World War, and it led to two states called Yugoslavia, between 1918 and 1941, and from 1945 until 1991. This book examines the origins of that idea among the related but separate peoples who have populated the region over the last 1,000 years, drawing out the connections this story has with the violent end of Tito's Yugoslavia in 1991. The author follows these peoples, their institutions and ideas from their earliest interaction, into the two World Wars and the states which resulted from them, detailing the tortuous search for political and economic viability which characterised Yugoslavian statehood. Accessible and authoritative, this book provides a unique insight into the origins of the tragedy that has overtaken the region.