The tumultuous history of the Balkans has been subject to a plethora of
conflicting interpretations, both local and external. In an attempt to
help overcome the stereotypes that still pervade Balkan history,
Battling over the Balkans concentrates on a set of five principal
controversies from the precommunist period with which the region's
history and historiography must contend: the pre-1914 Ottoman and
Eastern Christian Orthodox legacies; the post-1918 struggles for
state-building; the range of European economic and cultural influences
across the interwar period, as opposed to diplomatic or political
intervention; the role of violence and paramilitary forces in
challenging the interwar political regimes in the region; and the fate
of ethnic minorities into and after World War II, particularly Jews,
Muslims and Roma. In an attempt to give a voice to eminent local
authors, the chapters provide samples of new regional scholarship
exploring these contested issues--most of them translated into English
for the first time--and are prefaced with historiographical overviews
addressing the state of the debate on these specific controversies.
These translations help bridge the language barriers that often separate
scholarly traditions within Southeast Europe, as well as scholars in
Southeast Europe and English-speaking academia. This volume will enable
readers to identify common patterns and influences that characterize the
writing of history in the region, and will stimulate new transnational
and comparative approaches to the history of the Balkans.
