When fighting in Kosovo began breaking out and hitting news tabloids in mid-1998, the problem was that few people knew about this region's history, let alone its location on the globe. No one could quite understand the motives of Serbs and Albanians, who were at odds with each other. When NATO began bombing rump Yugoslavia for its conduct against Kosovo Albanian civilians, uncritical (and heavily biased) media reports and press coverage were the only source of information that one could turn to for background. While this may have been better than nothing, this information was far from providing a critical and satisfactory explanation and understanding. This was the case, until Tim Judah wrote his second book, the current one now under review.

Judah is a Balkan expert, who speaks numerous languages (including Serbo-Croatian and Albanian) and has written several articles for many newspapers and magazines throughout the world. His previous book ("The Serbs: History, Myth and the Destruction of Yugoslavia" [New Haven, 1997 and 2000]) put the Bosnian war into its proper context, while the current puts Kosovo into its respective context. The first chapter is a short, condensed history of Kosovo leading up to the end of the Second World War, while the next sizable portion of the book details key events and personalities throughout the 1980s and 1990s that shaped modern-day Kosovo and unwittingly turned it toward a war-path. Judah discusses the outbreaks of violence in late 1997, the failed efforts of Western diplomats in stopping the bloodshed, a critical and thrilling chapter chronicling the failed Rambouillet peace accords in February 1999, a chapter chronicling NATO's 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, and the aftermath of Kosovo's tragic conflict: vengeful Albanians returning home and killing Serbs and Roma.

Integral to Judah's work is his assessment of NATO's conduct in the conflict. His thesis is that the entire war was one of "human error," where Western diplomats foolishly believed that they could make Serbia's Milosevic back down within one week. Milosevic, on the other hand, believed NATO to be bluffing and took the alleged bluff. Tensions mounted within the NATO alliance, other world superpowers (in the military sense, aka. Russia and China) began bracing themselves for toil with the US, while Albanian and Serb civilians were either massacred or blown up by NATO's firepower. Totally unprepared of what to expect, NATO carried out blunder after blunder, failed to stop massacres in Kosovo and perhaps made the Balkans even more tense and unstable than before.

It is imperative that readers consult Judah's work for every meticulous detail surrounding Kosovo's recent history. Readers should consult other recent works in understanding Kosovo's ancient past to determine if Serbs really have rightful historical claims to the province, for Judah's first chapter is merely a primer. Of course, there are those critics out there that will cite, as I mentioned in another review, that Judah is not a "professional historian." It is likely that his knowledge, experience and excellent writing style makes his book more valuable and a much better, thrilling and informative read than the work of any academic.

No matter how much graphic TV footage we saw and how many acres of newsprint we read on the Kosovo crisis, nothing gave us enough information about what was really going on. As with any war situation, information was often unavoidably contradictory and confused, tainted with propaganda. Politicians and historians and revisionists will probably mull over the recent events in Kosovo for years before presenting their views.

In the meantime we have war correspondents cranking up the pace with instant records. While the accounts of war journalists lack the historical perspective that can only occur over time, their freshness and immediacy can be electrifying and there is still opportunity for analysis.

Tim Judah's book is a fine example of what can be achieved. This is not a hasty account. Judah presents a surprisingly fair overview of the Kosovo crisis, which he has rigorously researched with exhaustive notes.

Judah fleshes out the major players from the 12th century to the 20th. He traces Kosovo's troubled history back to the Field of the Blackbirds in 1389 when the Serbian Prince Lazar and the Ottoman Sultan Murad faced off becaused Lazar refused to submit to Ottoman rule. Lazar and Murad died, the Serbs lost the battle. Orthodox Christians and Muslims co-existed uneasily for over 600 years, but Judah's details for much of that time are sketchy. Anyway, we get the picture: that's a long time to hone a grudge and perfect the most savage methods of revenge. He has more information about the history of Balkan bloodshed in the 20th century.

Fast forward to 1999 where Judah examines the polarisation of the murderous Milsosovic regime as the Kosovo crisis unfolds, he gives frontline reports of atrocities, details the burgeoning humanitarian disaster and the intense machinations behind the scenes as the crisis unfolded.

His account of the how the Kosovo Albanian and Serbian delegations, NATO and international peacemakers confronted each other over cheese and claret in a chateau in Rambouillet is as astute as it is entertaining. Judah dispells propaganda on all sides. There was also a lot of background about the formation of the KLA I had known nothing about.

He is contemptuous of experts in far away places passing judgment on the tragic events that unfolded, a viewpoint fairly typical of reporters in the field

Judah's objectivity has allowed for clarity - the hallmark of a great journalist. And this certainly is a great read by a journalist with formidable research skills and meticulous attention to detail.

A book for those who were watching one of the biggest scenes of crime at the end of the 20th century from the TV screens. To try to learn and understand the complexity of the problem which layed "down there" for decades and nobody wasn't interested to solve it until the mass killing came to the scene. To understand the importance of the issue and to justify the right NATO air war. And, Tim has done a great job. He uses real people to tell their stories, politicans and the independent historic facts. Well writen, too. Read it.

So, Slobodan Milosevic has been toppled.. Guess that means all will now be peaceful in Kosovo!

Well, no, actually..and this book will tell you why.

Written just before NATO's 1999 air campaign over Kosovo, Julie Mertus illuminates the process by which trust between Serbs and Kosovars became impossible. It hints at Phillip Gourevitch's reflection that "power comes when you convince your enemy to inhabit YOUR version of HIS story".

That struggle, each wanting the "correct" version of history to stand, lies at the heart of all Balkan conflicts of the last ten years.

Through innumerable interviews with the ordinary people of Kosovo, Serbian and Albanian, Julie Mertus reveals how competing myths came to be, and how they then contributed to an environment where terrorism and atrocity became - ultimately - a logical choice.

She does not go back to the mythology surrounding the 1389 defeat of the Serbian Prince Lazar at Kosovo Polje - the rallying point for Milosevic. (Covered already in Noel Malcolm's "Kosovo: A Short History). Mertus shows how events within our generation created defining national stories.

Two quick examples.

In 1990, thousands of schoolchildren fell ill. The ethnic Albanian understanding: they were deliberately poisoned, probably with Sarin gas, by Serbian authorities. It was proof of the evil Serbs would be willing to do to Albanians. The UCK (Kosovo Liberation Army) recruited youths with the argument that without resistance, they would all be poisoned again.

The Serb response to the same event was that it was mass hysteria at best, or at worst a deliberate plot by ethnic Albanians to generate international sympathy against them, the Serbs. It proved the extent of the Kosovars' untrustworthiness, their deviousness.

There could be no common ground between those views. Which story you believed, defined you.

Similarly, there is the case of Djordje Martinovic, a Serbian peasant who turned up at hospital with a bottle in his rectum and a story about being assaulted in his field by "masked men". Although later apparently recanting his story, and confessing his "assault" had been a botched act of self-gratification, for Serbs it became a rallying point. Dismissing the recantation as an Albanian plot, Serbs were only too happy to believe that this, the violation of an honest peasant in an act with echoes of the old Turkish practice of impaling, was the extent to which ethnic Albanians would not hesitate to stoop. Martinovic quickly returned to his original story. He remains on the list of Serb martyrs to this day.

Today, Kosovo remains in an effective state of partition, nearly all its former Serb population living above the divided city of Mitrovica. Without the presence of KFOR troops, armed conflict would be inevitable. It is not their religion, or even their language, that divides Serb from Kosovar. It is the incompatability of the stories they tell. Since this book was written, both sides have volumes of fresh grievances, accentuating their enemy's inhumanity and highlighting their own victimhood. These stories, nearly all with some grain of truth, are now being woven themselves into the complex fabric of national myth.

Brilliantly, painstakingly and without taking sides, Prof. Mertus has given us a vivid account of how events become remembered. She gives us the template to understand better all the intractable conflicts of our times.

Mertus has found a new way to analyze how the elite can transform a conflict. Her theme of the "Truths" resonates strongly throughout the book. Her unbiased view and in-depth discussion left me wanting more. My interest in the subject of Balkan history grew from reading this title.

Julie Mertus has done a fine job of writing from her on the spot investigations of what she found during her interviews.

from the viewpoint of eyewitnesses. Although it is fiction: the message is clear, strong & real ..."rumors of impending war", "rumors of peace", "newly sealed alliances" - the story begins. Kadare's use of natural imagery & language is phenomenal. You understand how the anxiety of the mountain people adds to the tensions of political alliances, the ancient memories of past battles won & lost is ever present, as strummed on the gusle & sung by the bards. The Turks, Serbs & Bulgarians (Byzantine empire) and other peoples, kingdoms once existed in cohesion ... but with rumours & past memories inflaming emotions: the inevitable occurs. THIS IS ONE GREAT EPIC: told in about 120 pages!!!! AMAZING! Erika B.

I am a fan of Kadare's and recomend all his books, this one in particular. What beautiful language and powerful image. This is also one of the few books of his that was translated directly from the Albanian, and not from the French, which is important too. We see Kosovo from a completely different angle, as a Serb and an Albanian are thrown together by fate during a medieval battle. The book is full of superb surprises.

Excellent. A poetry of the Balkan turmoil.

Gordy identifies the methods by which the Milosevic regime, which obviously provided few benefits to its people, nonetheless maintained its power. Gordy identifies these methods as the "destruction of alternatives-" the removal of alternative political ideas, or of cultural institutions, such as popular music, that would enable individuals to unite in thought in a manner distinct from, and therefore threatening to, the regime.

This is indeed quite valuable to students of Yugoslavia or Eastern Europe; its broader value, however, is its contribution to the larger issues of power studied by sociologists and political scientists. How is power maintained? We frequently assume that individuals will revolt if conditions are so bad they have nothing to lose. Gordy documents the ability of the powerful to actually take away this option. Most mechanisms, such as cencorship, make revolt more difficult, raising the pain level people will tolerate; however, by keeping the more politically savvy urbanites near starvation, the regime actually compromised their very ability to express dissent.

Gordy provides an academic and, to the degree it is possible in social science, empirical explanation of power that is profoundly disturbing; sometimes it may be impossible to displace the powerful. True, outside forces crippled the regime; but what does this suggest about the American line that local groups should revolt to demonstrate support for democracy and earn military support? Don't throw it out yet, but Gordy presents an important argument. It also helps explain the success of earlier brutal regimes; Haile Selassie used similar techniques far more adeptly, and therefore more brutally, in Ethiopia. This book is both an insightful analysis of the Serbian regime's tactics and a significant study of the nature of power.

Gordy's basic premise is that the rather unpopular, corrupt and war-mongering regime controlled by Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia during the 1990s retained its hold on power by eliminating any meaningful alternatives to itself. He provides a very detailed account of how this was done in the fields of culture, politics, the media and the economy. Since the book was written and published in 1999, when Milosevic was still in power in Serbia, the basic question posed by the study, i.e. how does he manage to stay in power, should be replaced with how did he manage to stay in power so long? Otherwise, this is a vitally important study, as the matters Gordy covers here illuminate many aspects of political culture in Serbia during the 1990s - and help readers understand the country's current political malaise as well. Despite the many changes that have occurred since Milosevic's fall from power, the legacy of the 'destruction of alternatives' he helped institute will continue to dog Serbian society for years to come (and, looking over the fence from Croatia, I have to add: just as the legacy of Franjo Tudjman still haunts and troubles Croatian society today and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future).

Struggling to understand how Slobodan Milosevic managed to tighten his grip on power in Serbia despite a disasterous decade of war and economic decline? Or would you just like to know why authoritarian regimes produce such terrible pop music? Eric Gordy's "Culture of Power in Serbia: Nationalism and the Destruction of Alternatives" is a good place to start for both questions. Though written before the war in Kosovo and Milosevic's subsequent fall from power, the book provides a useful framework for understanding both the durability of his regime and the fragility of its popular support. Prof. Gordy argues that Milosevic maintained power not through any skill in governing (the record on that score is pretty clear), but by systematically dismantling any alternatives that Serbian civil society could muster. As one would expect, Gordy covers in some detail Milosevic's attempts to co-opt, stifle and crush rival political parties and media organizations. What is unique about this book is the long chapter devoted to the underground music scene in Belgrade. The regime rightly perceived a threat to its political as well as cultural dominance, and rallied its forces behind a smarmy concoction dubbed "Turbo Folk".... This musical atrocity does not, of course, compare to those committed in Bosnia and Kosovo, but it is a chilling read nonetheless. Gordy clearly brings a mastery of Serbo-Croatian literary and musical idiom to this section. One wishes only that the book were accompanied by a CD. Though written from a sociological perspective, this book is full of lively if understated prose, and offers much to engage the non-specialist and general reader.

It's a crying shame that the world hosts chronic bouts of uncivil wars all over the planet, and then their atrocities vie for our attention. It's a pity that the current, most florid acts of inhumanity (via the media) hold us in thrall and divert us from the grinding pain of recovery from similar acts elsewhere. The focus on the Miedle East has distracted us from other hostilities that changed the map and twisted lives. One such conflict is the tangle of unrest among Albanians/Serbians/Bosniaks and others who share, or shared, Kosovo.

Melanie Friend has created a book of portraits (visual and verbal) that attends to the pain and confusion between 1994 and 2000 in Kosovo. Her wonderfully quiet, understated photographs do not feed the sensationalistic. They speak to the almost mundane horrors of daily living in burned out homes; hiding in sewers; trying to stay clean after escaping with only the clothes on one's back; eating only bread for an entire month; eating cherries for an entire month; occupying one's time trying to keep a refugee camp tent clean, mostly to stay busy; clinging to a shred of photograph as a talisman of hope for a loved one's survival; and surviving chronic fatiuge when one is never safe enough to sleep through an entire night.

The author's photographs are reproduced with such pristine fidelity that they are by themselves graceful studies of form, color and light. Alongside the photographs, Ms. Friend's interviewees tell their stories, narratives in the stark flatness of truth as they experience it. They don't philosophize particularly, nor do they bang their political drums particularly, although I'm sure all cherish their personal philosophies and have political perspectives. They describe what happened to them, their families, and their homes. All were victimized. The speakers survived, but none have recovered.

You will not see a single severed limb, starving child, or mangled body in the book. The book will not burden you with the type of content that increases your anxiety or "compassion fatigue" to the degree that you must turn away. Instead, in quietude, the author gives you a current history of Kosovo's war and its aftermath with respect and sadness.

"No Place Like Home" is an elegant book that informs by taking one in and quietly personalizing the experience of war in one's homeland rather than beating the reader into insensibility with atrocities so graphic that one must tune out. It is a thoughtful, painful, gentle response to victims of war.

Photographs and text: Wonderful!

This is a fantastic book! It completely transports the reader into the lives and experiences of the people of Kosovo. They are elegantly and honestly portrayed through Friend's unique choice of medium. She juxtaposes stunning photographs and gripping testimonies of her subjects, inspiring compassion and awe from her audience. Having a degree in International Relations, I found this book offered an insightful and fresh perspective on the situation in the Balkans, while remaining accessible to a wide audience. Beautiful!

This is a book about war unlike any other. You are drawn in by the photographs and, somehow, the voices of the ordinary civilians telling you about their lives under the years of repression, the war, the flight from their homes and their return to the devastated towns and villages hit you with remarkable poignancy. The juxtaposition of these extraordinary photographs and the testimonies is truly remarkable. This is not only great documentary photography, it is also one of the most articulate and profound book about war I've ever read. Kudos to Melanie Friend! Very highly recommended!

If you are interested on learning about German and Austro-Hungarian war plans on the Eastern front, this is the book you should get. Count von Schlieffen did not only think on his war against France; he was aware of the menace Russia and Serbia meant not only for the German Empire, but also for Austria-Hungary. This book is outstanding -from my point of view- mainly because of the sources on which the resaerch is based. Also, it is so well written that on can actually imagine the austro-hungarian forces being transferred from one front to another on overcrowded rail tracks, as well as the German High Command considering which moves to make on the East. Mr. Tunstall also deals with Conrad von Hotzendorf, Imperial Chief of Staff of Austria-Hungary, whose constant mistakes seem to have put the Empire in such awckward position that without German help one can seriously doubt if they could have lasted more than one year of war. This is a must read for any really interested on the First World War.

I have read this book twice now and have never found an insipid moment. This book refocuses history as we know it. Tunstall is brilliant, commendable, unrelenting. I am looking forward to many future succusses in literature.

Some might find it biased, but a very good book to read to get the Serbian Royalist Chetnik perspective of World War Two and their strugles against the Communist Partizans, Nazi's and Fascist Croatia.

Bing West has used his insider's knowledge of weapons and tactics skillfully, not overloading the reader with techno-babble, to write a brisk, knowledgeable, swiftly paced thriller that will keep you turning pages until the very end.
This elitist reservist group, in top physical and mental shape, is referred to en masse as the Pepperdogs because they can run like dogs with pepper on their butts. The rescuers defy the chain of command that obliges U.S. officers to consult with NATO members first before acting, since the war in Kosovo was technically a NATO, not an American operation.
What makes for a good novel may not be the most effective way to work things out on the world stage, where West once had a supporting role.All in all, this book puts West among the great war novel writers with W.E.B. Griffin and Tom Clancy.

I found this book to be factual and as a former Marine I could relate very easily to what the characters in this book were going through. After reading this book, I would rank Bing West among the great war writers as W.E.B. Griffin and Tom Clancy. As an Old Corps Marine, one can appreciate the sentence that Bing West writes...."no crusty Marine colonel limping along behind them, telling them what to do." Any Marine would see the allusion to Colonel Chesty Puller. I would recommend anyone to buy this book, as I surely enjoyed it.

Captain Tyler Cosgrove, US Marine Corps Reserve, is doing his last patrol in Kosovo because he has been granted leave to fly back to the states to see his dying mother. One hour before his patrol is over, his path crosses that of Soca, a psychopathic Serb who just killed a woman in cold blood and stole her valuables. When the captain tries to stop him, his foe knocks him unconscious and takes him across the border into Serbia.

Captain Mark Lang is very close to Cosgrove and is determined to find him and bring him home. Accompanying him are the men in his unit, THE PEPPER DOGS. They all come from New York and their families are all close friends. When an official rescue attempt fails, the men go it alone. Deliberately ignoring orders and prepared to take the consequences, their exploits are being broadcasted on to the net with pictures and text turning them into real American heroes. Politically and diplomatically their country doesn't know what to do with them but even the hard-liners hope they will make it back to safety.

BING WEST has written an exciting techno-thriller that is in the same class as the works of Dale Brown and Tom Clancy. The men that comprise THE PEPPERDOGS are true heroes because they do the right thing in searching of their friend even though they have to go outside legal channels to do it. There is so much action in this novel that the reader will want to finish in one sitting to find out if everyone makes it back alive.

Harriet Klausner

The author has traveled to Kosova/Kosovo, both before and after the NATO airstrikes there, and is currently active in attempts to release Kosovar Albanian prisoners held by the government in Belgrade. In Adem's Cross, the author attempts to depict rural life in Kosova/Kosovo during Serb rule, from the perspective of a Kosovar Albanian teenager, Adem(Adam). The humanity of individual Serbs and Roma(Gypsies), the ineffectiveness of several policies of the Democratic League of Kosova(LDK), the depictions of the city of Prizren and the nearby border with Albania, the views of Kosovar Albanians toward the then raging war in Bosnia-Hercegovina, and the prediction of future intervention over Kosova/Kosovo by the United States, make this book unique, in that it was published before the open emergence of organized armed resistance in Kosova/Kosovo, let alone the start of involvement by NATO.

Believe me,this book is so beautifully written.As a Kosovar I've found it amazing how Alice could make such a great story which in fact most of it or perhaps all of it is true because these sort of things hapenned very often in Kosova. I would highly recommend this book to all of you - no matter what age you are...Well done Alice and Keep Writing as your books will always have a spare place on my library...The best of luck

Adem's Cross is a wondeful book it's easy to read and very informative. This book makes you want to reach out and help these people. It's captivating and exciting, your always on your toes and it ends very well.A+

The poetic description of sadness at the heart of this short novel is very moving.

Within the pages of this book, Tisma has brought to life a small part of the world which, at the time, was sadly caught between the clash of two ideologies that were slowly descending, like dark clouds, upon Europe - communism and fascism. The consequent racial suspicions, which leave no one untouched, are real: Hungarians, Jews, Serbians, all are caught in the ideological swirl which, as we know, had devastating consequences for the people of the region: pogroms, the invasion by Arrow Cross Hungarians, the murder of communists (Blam's sister)...

The novel also delves into the unconscious of violent retribution, something which, as we have learned in recent years, only leads to the perpetuation of violence. Mr. Tisma must have had the wars that raged throughout the 90s in mind (i.e., Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina) while he was writing his novel. (The precariousness of the region, of which we are all aware, is in part the result of a failure to put the past behind, to let go, to forgive.) The dream-like scenes, where long-dead friends of Blam's pay their executioners in kind, are harrowing.

A short novel about a region of the world whose history we unfortunately know too little about, and but one tiny chapter in the book of horrors that were visited upon the European Jewish community.

The Book of Blam is a wonderful book and an important book. It recounts the events during the Holocaust period in what is now Serbia. After reading this and Tisma's Kapo, he has a style of writing that is unlike most writers that I have read from Eastern Europe; concise, flowing storylines and easy to read. His story has been told many times before but there is something to Tisma's writing that makes Genocide appear as normal to these killers as washing their hands or going for a walk. His is a voice of reason in Novi Sad, a city with little tolerance then and now. After the events in the Balkans during the recent past, sad to say, not much has changed.

This is the literary equivalent and then some of the photographic essay "A Vanished World" and Anne Frank's diary in 1950, had she survived. And an all too useful exploration of how survivors of the abyss might look at the world. I can't say I'm looking forward to reading Tisma's other work, but read it I must.