History of the Balkans

Why study Byzantine and Ottoman history as it relates to the Balkans...? Simply because you can't understand any other part of European history without knowing about this key region...and it's key players--the Eastern Romans of Constantinople, and later the Ottomans. I am amazed that anyone would even try to understand European history from 600AD to 1914...without having a clear grasp of Byzantine and Ottoman history... This period in Europe was at the end of the Roman Empire...but before the current nation states of Europe were fully formed...or even imagined. The only "super power" during these key formative years was Byzantium a/k/a Constantinople,...later called Istanbul under the Ottomans... My copy of this book is well marked up...and I won't part with it... The writing style is highly readable...not forced or needlessly obscure... In short, this book is a "page turner" if you are interested in really understanding...not only the Balkans which are really the pawns in the story...but the other nations that made the Balkans their main geopolitical focus for a thousand years...which, quite frankly, was all of Europe as we now know it!

As a non-historian interested in Balkan problems I found this book filled with historic details and descriptions that helped me elucidate reasons behind today's underlying conflicts. It reads like a novel occassionally with a wry ironic tone and yet seems fair and unbiased. It will remain on my shelf to be re-read and referred to.