Croatia: A Nation Forged in War

I was pleasently surprised to have found this book which is one of the rare history books about Croatia written in English language successfully avoiding the historical misconceptions ant the mythomania from serbian and croatian extremist elements who often tend to re-write the 20th century history. Although Tanner is not an academic, he has carefully collected all of the historical facts and has very swiftly dealt with the chapters covering newer history, managing to present all of true and false historical facts as such. The chapters on the early croatian history are also well written, easy to read and suitable for an average reader who might not be a historian, as well as for all those who are learning about Croatia for the first time. A must-read for anyone wanting to learn about the basic history of the western Balkans.

We start in the dim past of Slavic tribes moving into the dark realms of the collapsed Roman empire, Christianizing and warding off (sometimes unsuccessfully) the Byzantine rulers from the southeast. Then we move rapidly through the long period of Hungarian rule, coupled with the Venetian hold on the Dalmatian coast, and Turkish occupation. The lands that make up Croatia today long served as a frontier for the Hapsburg Empire and the Hungarian Kingdom, fighting the Muslims/Turks of Bosnia, the French under Napoleon, and the Italians and Russians in World War I. Ultimately Croatia wound up---not an independent state as so many had hoped under the rising tide of nationalism in Austro-Hungarian times---but as a part of Yugoslavia where they played the part of perpetual second fiddle to Serbia. More than half the book is devoted to Croatian history after World War I. Large sections cover the country between the two World Wars, under the awful Ustashe regime during German occupation, and in Tito's Yugoslavia. The slow crumbling and breakup of that country after the leader's death in 1980 is documented very well, as is the war between Croatia and Serbia in 1991-92 and then the lightning campaign in 1995 when the renewed national army drove out the Serbs who had tried to set up an independent enclave within the boundaries of Croatia. Like Ireland, Finland, Slovakia, and other small nations, Croatia endured for centuries as a minor outpost, used but not appreciated by the empires that ruled it. Its territories were often divided among different conquerors. After nearly a thousand years of passionate defence of its mere existence, the nation finally emerged into the light in the 1990s with a language and culture of its own. The perennial "minor leaguer" entered the majors at last. It was an exceedingly difficult transition. I've read various histories of Balkan and Eastern European countries in which nationalism outpoints facts. Perhaps we might say that "certain facts are ignored" in such books. Tanner, a journalist who worked for years in Croatia and former Yugoslavia, tries to maintain a neutral stance. He neither whitewashes Croatian sins nor takes sides with their enemies. The result is a highly readable book with attention to academic sources, with a series of interesting black and white photographs, and some modern details gleaned on the spot by personal experience which standard histories might never incorporate. I felt that he tried his best to be fair. There are a number of interesting portraits of characters in Croatian history---of Jelacic, Gaj, Strossmeyer, Radic, Pavelic, Stepinac, and Tudjman among others---men hardly known in the outside world. Given that knowledge of Croatia is not particularly widespread, a better, more detailed large map would have been useful. The small maps provided are all right, but insufficient. Histories of Croatia in English aren't exactly a dime a dozen, so you've got to take what you can f

This thoughtful and well written book presents Croatian history without the usual Serbian propaganda. Perhaps Aleksa Djilas (see previous review) could write an additional chapter and include the assorted Serbian fairy tales about "what the Croats are really like". Djilas' famous father made a career out of living in Serbia and bugging Serbia's ruling mafia. The younger Djilas, on the other hand, lives at Harvard and strives to please the same psychotic criminals his father antagonized. Considering the crimes of Serbia over the past decade, this interesting approach to dealing with one's oedipal problems might be a good subject for Tanner's next book.

A book on Croatian history is most overdue. This is one of the rare books on Croatian history written in English and therefore a must read. Croatian history is rarely analysed, with most of its 2000 or so years virtually ignored. Fortunately there is now a book which will give an objective and comprehensive overview of this ancient nation from the 7th century to the present. It is well written and easy to read. Recommended. Added analysis can be found in Noel Malcolm's 'Bosnia: A short History'.

Anyone interested in going beyond the standard media sound byte to understand the history of Croatia, will find Tanner's book an invaluable resource. Tanner chronicles in detail the long history of the Croatian people and emergence of the Croatian state, including the birth and shaping of national identity, personalities, myths and changing political panorama. While most works on the subject deal with specific, disjointed time periods of Croatian history, Tanner provides an insightful and comprehensive account - complete with references and facts rarely found in other sources. An enlightening read about a surprisingly complex nation and its turbulent path through the historical landscape.