The Black Book of Bosnia: The Consequences of Appeasement

Bys: New Republic, Republic and New Republic

Book Overview

The war in the former Yugoslavia has shamed the leading nations of the world. Unspeakable crimes against humanity have been committed in Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia, yet American and European policymakers have cravenly stood aside while whole villages and communities were erased from the face of the earth.Americans are appalled by the images on their television screens of the carnage, but most of us are confused. What are the issues that have brought this conflict to a head? How can it be that fifty years after the Nazi Holocaust, the civilized world is once again unable to stem a tide of atrocities that include concentration camps and civilian massacres?One of the few consistent voices raised against aggression and genocide in the Balkans has been that of The New Republic. The Black Book of Bosnia brings together the magazine's best analysis, reportage, commentary, and editorials to explain how the war came to pass and what it portends for America, the West and the world.The essays in this volume offer a road map through the tangled history of the Balkans, along with vivid on-the-scene reports that reveal the bloody aftermath in our own time. And the magazine's editorials, written throughout the course of the war, themselves tell a story of missed opportunities and moral abdication. Future generations will see Bosnia as the first test of the post-Cold War international order, and this book reveals how and why the West failed the test.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0465098355
• ISBN13: 9780465098354
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Basic Books
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Unique Perspective on the Bosnian Conflict

The Black Book of Bosnia is not a reference book. Nor is it a summary of the events and actions that occured in the war. Rather, it is an interesting variety of social commentary put together in one place.In any war today, a variety of correspondents are distributed to the region. This book is a compilation of essays brought in by several well-known correspondents or commentators, including Arthur Miller.What is great about this book is the diversity of opinions as well as scenarios that are brought to us by the contributors. Some talk about the reasons the war came about, while others focus on effects on Europe, and the United States. Perhaps the most important essays are those that discuss the big reason that almost any recent conflict in Europe came to be....nationalism. Filled with insight, and evidence, this book brings a different perspective to what most of us just know from CNN or the Nightly News. By bringing us closer to the war by describing problems the common citizens of Bosnia see, it may strike a personal chord with some of us. Several essays in this book bring about how truly pathetic and tragic the war really was. One of the most saddening was one essay by Slavenka Drakulic who commented about the destruction of the Mostar Bridge, a monument that had stood since the invasion by the Ottomans. In these few lines, the full destruction of the war is captured.A book by the writers and authors of the New Republic, this book was enjoyable mostly because of how well written the essays in it were, but also because of how much information they brought out. Why this book differs from several others is mostly because it is not just hard, cold facts, but rather opinion and insight that give it more depth than several others.I would reccomend this book to anyone to anyone who is interested on looking at the conflict in Bosnia at a deeper level.