Kosovo: A Short History
- Book Review,
by Noel Malcolm
Amazon.com
Kosovo, a 55-mile-long plateau in southern Serbia bordering Albania and Macedonia, should by all rights be a historical and political backwater. A Bulgarian geographer who visited Kosovo during World War I remarked that it was "almost as unknown and inaccessible as a stretch of land in Central Africa." The observation would prove ironically fitting by the '90s, as Central Africa and Kosovo both became sites of widespread genocide, fueled by ethnic hatreds, of the deepest international significance. Noel Malcolm, a British historian and journalist who has written extensively about the Balkans (including a companion volume of sorts on Bosnia), provides an overview of Kosovo's long-standing cultural divisions in his "short history" (although, at more than 500 pages, a not so short book). Readers following the unfolding war in Kosovo through newspaper and television coverage may well ask why ethnic Albanians and Serbs are struggling so violently to command the small region. Kosovo, Malcolm explains, is the birthplace of Serbian nationalism; the defeat of Serbian forces there in 1389 by Turkish troops became emblematic of the fall of the Serbian empire, as it led to Turkish domination of the Balkans. Contemporary warriors of Serbia are, in Malcolm's eyes, evidently attempting to reverse the course of history by reclaiming the land from its Turkish conquerors--but in the absence of the Turks, they'll take it from the Albanians (the largest ethnic group among Kosovo's inhabitants) whose ancestors converted to Islam when the Turks ruled the region. Malcolm's lucid text shows again and again that the ethnic conflict in Kosovo is less a battle over bloodlines and religion than it is one over differing conceptions of national origins and history. "When ordinary Serbs learn to think more rationally and humanely about Kosovo, and more critically about some of their national myths," he concludes, "all the people of Kosovo and Serbia will benefit--not least the Serbs themselves." --Gregory McNamee
From Publishers Weekly
In this awe-inspiring work, Malcolm has created a vital successor to his Bosnia: A Short History and an essential aid to anyone who wishes to understand this tragic region today. Through the dazzling use of linguistic evidence, Malcolm postulates that Albanians, whether their nebulous origins are Thracian or Illyrian, can reasonably be placed in the region as early as pre-Roman times. The historical description begins in earnest with the Middle Ages, with the advent of written records, and Malcolm appears to have ferreted out every one. His book is exceptional not only for his unimpeachable research, but also for his equitable examination of the conflicting ethnic views of what really happened in this contentious region, and his determination to debunk dangerous myths. If some will be shocked to learn that Serbian state policy mandated ethnic cleansing for more than 100 years, others will be equally amazed at the resilience of a people who for centuries have been caught in nationalistic crossfire. But probably the most important contribution of the book is its clear and thorough documentation of the legal status of Kosovo over time, and its compelling conclusions that challenge the accepted status quo. One can't help speculating on how a clear understanding of the information contained here might have affected the Dayton Accord and history. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
The New York Times Book Review, Anna Husarska
Any book dealing with the history of Kosovo must devote considerable space to deconstructing myths. If Malcolm spends more time demystifiying the Serb myths, this is simply because theirs are the more inflated.
The Wall Street Journal, Stephen Schwartz
...more than the historical outline of a troubled region. It is also a pathbreaking work of Albanology, by far the least developed area of Balkan studies in the English-speaking world. This is a book every policy expert, journalist and lay person interested in the Balkans must read.
From Kirkus Reviews
A timely and penetrating history of the Balkans' next crisis zonethe Serbian province of Kosovo. With its 90 percent ethnic Albanian population dominated by Serbs with a nasty record of human-rights abuses, Kosovo is a nightmare waiting to happen. Throughout the 20th century it has presented an intractable problem to Yugoslav leaders, both royalist and communist. Malcolm, a seasoned British journalist in the Balkans and the author of a much-acclaimed work on the region (Bosnia: A Short History, 1994), demonstrates a similar appreciation for the urgency and significance of both the present turmoil and the complicated past of the region. He manages to be both concise and comprehensive. The book begins with geographic and ethnographic background and follows historical developments chronologically from the medieval period to the present. Malcolm's prose is lively and engaging, his scholarship well documented, and he seems unafraid of offending the warring camps, displaying a strong, healthy skepticism bred of many years spent in the Balkans. He identifies several major factors in the shaping of Kosovo's past and present situation. The Serbian Orthodox Church's use of religious rhetoric to defend ``sacred'' Serbian interests (the official Serbian Patriarchate and several historic churches) is, he asserts, ``a classic example of religion being mobilized and manipulated for ideological purposes.'' He also objects to the Serbs' claims of political hegemony based ``on the geography of long-gone kingdoms or empires.'' He blames the politicization of Albanian-Orthodox relations since the 19th century for turning divisions into outright hostility, drawing a parallel to the key role of politicians in creating the Bosnian crisis. Significantly, Malcolm openly challenges both the legality of Kosovos incorporation into the Serbian state as well as a historiography of Kosovo that has misrepresented parts of the regions history due to national and ideological biases. Both scholars and general readers will appreciate Malcolm's vigorous and trenchant analysis of the region's troubled past and present. This is destined to become a standard work on the subject. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Canadian Slavonic Papers, March-June 2000:
”An excellent scholarly contribution . . . . Seriously differs from . . . biased interpretations published by Serbian and Albanian historians, or . . . shallow Western “Kosovology experts.”
USA Today
"Kosovo: A Short History by Noel Malcolm shows that the conflict between Serbs and Albanians is less about religion andbloodlines and more about history and differing views ofnational origins. Malcolm, a British historian now at Harvard,disputes Serbian claims to Kosovo."
The New York Review of Books, Tim Judah
He has clearly taken it upon himself to explode virtually all Serbian historical claims to the province.... Mr. Malcolm makes a convincing case, drawing on seventeenth-century archival material he has brought to light; it is surprising however that he does not cite comparable Serbian documents.
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