The Balkans: nationalism, war, and the great powers, 1804-2011 / Misha Glenny

A confederacy of peasants : rebellion and revolution, 1804-66 -- The realm of ruins : reform and decay, 1839-78 -- A maze of conspiracy : the southern Balkans, 1878-14 -- The empire of illusions : the northern Balkans, 1878-1914 -- A house of wars : war and peace, 1914-24 -- The palaces of deceit : the royal dictatorships, 1923-41 -- City of the dead : occupation, genocide, liberation, civil war, 1941-9 -- Prisons of history : communism and militarism, 1949-89 -- The Balkan vortex : nationalism, war and NATO, 1989-99 -- Epilogue : the swinging doors : Europe, crime and economic crisis, 1999-2012.

This unique and lively history of Balkan geopolitics since the early nineteenth century gives readers the essential historical background to more than one hundred years of events in this war-torn area. No other book covers the entire region, or offers such profound insights into the roots of Balkan violence, or explains so vividly the origins of modern Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, and Albania. Now updated to include the fall of Slobodan Milosevic, the capture of all indicted war criminals from the Yugoslav wars, and each state's quest for legitimacy in the European Union, The Balkans explores the often catastrophic relationship between the Balkans and the Great Powers, raising some disturbing questions about Western intervention.