Tito: And the Rise and Fall of Yugoslavia

FROM THE PUBLISHER

For nearly forty years, up until his death in 1980, Tito, the Yugoslav leader, was world-famous - first as a Partisan against the Germans, then as the first Communist head to break with the Soviet Union, then as a pioneer of the 'non-aligned' world between East and West. Yet, twelve years after Tito's death, Yugoslavia ceased to exist and its people were caught up in a violent civil war. Was Tito to blame? Richard West's revealing biography answers this and other questions.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

This impressive biography of Josip Broz Tito (1892-1980) sheds welcome light on the current bloodshed in the former Yugoslavia. West describes Tito's rise to power, his creation of the Partisan Army during the Axis occupation, his consolidation of southern Slavs after the war and establishment of a Communist Yugoslavia, the break with Stalin in 1948, Tito's subsequent rivalry with the Soviet bloc and his leadership of nonaligned states. In freelance journalist West's view, Tito's great achievement in foreign affairs was the rapprochement with western Europe. The book also clarifies the present three-way conflict among Serbs, Croats and Muslims. West argues persuasively that to understand the region's cycle of hatred and violence, one must take an in-depth look at its religious history, especially the schisms among the Orthodox Church, the Catholic Church and Islam in the Middle Ages. In contrast to Western media assumptions, there is scant difference, according to West, between warring factions in Bosnia-Herzegovina, all of whom are alike in appearance, language and bellicosity: what divides them is not class or race but religious intolerance. Illustrations. (June)

Booknews