Serbia

Widely recognized as West's most distinguished nonfiction work, this book describes the author's travels to Yugoslavia with her husband in 1937--a journey overshadowed by the growing inevitability of the Second World War.

From the ashes of former Yugoslavia an independent Croatian state has arisen, the fulfilment, in the words of President Franjo Tudjman, of the Croats' "1000 old dream of independence". Yet few countries in Europe have been born amid such bitter controversy and bloodshed: the savage war between pro-independence forces and the Yugoslav army left about one-third of the country in ruins and resulted in the flight of a quarter of a million of the country's Serbian minority. In this book a journalist who witnessed much of the war from Sarajevo and Zagreb traces the rise, fall and rebirth of Croatia from its medieval origins to today's tentative peace. Marcus Tanner describes the creation of the first Croatian kingdom; its absorption into feudal Hungary in the middle age; Croatia's reduction to a tiny sliver of territory after the Ottoman invasion; the absorption of this fragment into Habsburg Austria; the evolution of modern Croatian nationalism after the French Revolution; and the circumstances that propelled Croatia into the arms of Nazi Germany and the brutal, home-grown "Ustashe" movement in the World War II. Finally, drawing on interviews with many of the leading figures in today's affairs, Tanner explains the failure of Tito's communists to "kill home rule by kindness" by turning Yugoslavia into a federal state, and Yugoslavia's violent implosion after his death. Croatia's unique position on the crossroads of Europe - between eastern and western christendom, the Mediterranean and the Balkans and between the old Habsburg and Ottoman empires - has been both a curse and a blessing, inviting the attention of larger and more powerful neighbours. The turbulence and drama of Croatia's past, Tanner argues, are unlikely to disappear in the near future.

This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

In her novel S., Slavenka Drakulic´ explored the horror of genocide and the lives that were ripped apart during the Bosnian conflict of the early 1990s. Now, in They Would Never Hurt a Fly, she confronts one of the consequences of that war—the prisoners being tried at The Hague for their war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

During that terrible and bloody clash, countless humans were tortured, raped, and murdered—unspeakable acts committed in the name of “ethnic cleansing” and all authorized by the government. Drakulic´ introduces readers to the accused—from the infamous to the unknown to the unquestionably guilty, including former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic´—seeking to understand the people behind the horrific crimes. She asserts that the trials are important not just because of the dead, but also because of the living. “In the end,” she writes about the war criminals, “what matters... is one single important question: what would I do in their situation?”

A guide to artillery developments in Britain, France, the USA, Italy, Belgium, Serbia and Russia. Topics covered include: field artillery; heavy artillery; railway artillery; coastal defence artillery; anti-aircraft guns and ammunition.