First Published in 1996. In identifying the causes of such a national and international failure in conflict management, The South Slav Conflict becomes a valuable case study in comparative politics and international relations. Edited by Raju G .C . Thomas and H. Richard Frim and, is unique among these by virtue of its thoroughly interdisciplinary approach to the causes and consequences of the war. The book’s great strength begins with its forthright assertion that no serious attempt to explain the current cycle of genocide and revenge among Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians can avoid the inherent complexity of the factors that transform ed Yugoslavia from one of the most pluralist of European communist states into a theater of human misery.

Why did Yugoslavia fall apart? Was its violent demise inevitable? Did its population simply fall victim to the lure of nationalism? How did this multinational state survive for so long, and where do we situate the short life of Yugoslavia in the long history of Europe in the twentieth century? A History of Yugoslavia provides a concise, accessible, comprehensive synthesis of the political, cultural, social, and economic life of Yugoslavia—from its nineteenth-century South Slavic origins to the bloody demise of the multinational state of Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Calic takes a fresh and innovative look at the colorful, multifaceted, and complex history of Yugoslavia, emphasizing major social, economic, and intellectual changes from the turn of the twentieth century and the transition to modern industrialized mass society. She traces the origins of ethnic, religious, and cultural divisions, applying the latest social science approaches, and drawing on the breadth of recent state-of-the-art literature, to present a balanced interpretation of events that takes into account the differing perceptions and interests of the actors involved. Uniquely, Calic frames the history of Yugoslavia for readers as an essentially open-ended process, undertaken from a variety of different regional perspectives with varied composite agenda. She shuns traditional, deterministic explanations that notorious Balkan hatreds or any other kind of exceptionalism are to blame for Yugoslavia’s demise, and along the way she highlights the agency of twentieth-century modern mass society in the politicization of differences. While analyzing nuanced political and social-economic processes, Calic describes the experiences and emotions of ordinary people in a vivid way. As a result, her groundbreaking work provides scholars and learned readers alike with an accessible, trenchant, and authoritative introduction to Yugoslavia's complex history.

This timely, easy-to-use reference work surveys the origins, development, people, places, events, concepts, and treaties and agreements pertaining to the conflict in the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Features include an introduction, illustrations, maps, a chronology, extensive cross-references, a summary of the Dayton Agreements, a bibliography, and an index.