Most Popular Books by Ivo

Even before it collapsed into civil war, ethnic cleansing, and dissolution, Yugoslavia was an archetypical example of a troubled multinational mosaic, a state without a single national base or even a majority. Its stability and very existence were challenged repeatedly by the tension between the pressures for overarching political cohesion and the defense of separate national identities and aspirations. In a brilliant analysis of this complex and sensitive national question, Ivo Banac provides a comprehensive introduction to Yugoslav political history. His book is a genetic study of the ideas, circumstances, and events that shaped the pattern of relations among the nationalities of Yugoslavia. It traces and analyzes the history and characteristics of South Slavic national ideologies, connects these trends with Yugoslavia''s flawed unification in 1918, and ends with the fatal adoption of the centralist system in 1921. Banac focuses on the first two and a half years in the history of the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, because in his view this was the period that set the pattern for subsequent development of the national question. The issues that divided the South Slavs, and that still divide them today, took on definite form during that time, he maintains. Banac provides extensive treatment of all of Yugoslavia''s nationalities; his sections on the Montenegrins, Albanians, Macedonians, and Bosnian Muslims are unique in the literature. In this unbiased account, all of the principals and groups assume a tragic fascination. When published in 1984, The National Question in Yugoslavia was the first complete introduction to the cultural history of the South Slavic peoples and to the politics of Yugoslavia, and it remains a major contribution to the scholarship on modern European nationalism and the stability of multinational states.

Ivo Andric (1892-1975), Nobel Prize laureate for literature in 1961, is undoubtedly the most popular of all contemporary Yugoslav writers. Over the span of fifty-two years some 267 of his works have been published in thirty-three languages. Andric’s doctoral dissertation, The Development of Spiritual Life in Bosnia under the Influence of Turkish Rule (1924), never before translated into English, sheds important light on the author’s literary writings and must be taken into account in any current critical analysis of his work. Over his long and distinguished career as a diplomat and man of letters Andric never again so directly or discursively addressed, as a social historian, the impact of Turkish hegemony on the Bosnian people (1463–1878), a theme he returns to again and again in his novels. Although Andric’s fiction was embedded in history, scholars know very little of his actual readings in history and have no other comparable treatment of it from his own pen. This dissertation abounds with topics that Andric incorporated into his early stories and later novels, including a focus on the moral stresses and compromises within Bosnia’s four religious confessions: Catholic, Orthodox, Jew, and Muslim. Z. B. Juricic provides an extensive introduction describing the circumstances under which this work was written and situating it in Andric’s oeuvre. John F. Loud’s original bibliography drawn from this dissertation stands as the only comprehensive inventory of historical sources known to have been closely familiar to the author at this early stage in his development.

Set in the town of Travnik, Bosnian Chronicle presents the struggle for supremacy in a region that stubbornly refuses to submit to any outsider. The era is Napoleonic and the novel, both in its historical scope and psychological subtlety, Tolstoyan. In its portrayal of conflict and fierce ethnic loyalties, the story is also eerily relevant. Ottoman viziers, French consuls, and Austrian plenipotentiaries are consumed by an endless game of diplomacy and double-dealing: expansive and courtly face-to-face, brooding and scheming behind closed doors. As they have for centuries, the Bosnians themselves observe and endure the machinations of greater powers that vie, futilely, to absorb them. Ivo Andric''s masterwork is imbued with the richness and complexity of a region that has brought so much tragedy to our century and known so little peace. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction—novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

Sifting through a huge fund of hitherto unexploited sources, Banac demonstrates that the so-called Cominformists, long considered an inconsequential fifth column, in fact represented as much as 20 percent of the party membership. He shows that this fifth column included a variety of oppositional groups within Yugoslav communism who wanted to exploit the crisis for their own purposes. Their aims often diverged, and only from the official Yugoslav perspective could they be said to have constituted a unified opposition. Banac reconstructs the history of the labyrinthine factional struggles that preceded and accompanied the 1948 split and demonstrates that, as always, the national question played the dominant role in Yugoslav politics. After identifying the members of the opposition and mapping its course, Banac recounts the harsh repression of the movement.

On the path to war

After eleven weeks of bombing in the spring of 1999, the United States and NATO ultimately won the war in Kosovo. Serbian troops were forced to withdraw, enabling an international military and political presence to take charge in the region. But was this war inevitable or was it the product of failed western diplomacy prior to the conflict? And once it became necessary to use force, did NATO adopt a sound strategy to achieve its aims of stabilizing Kosovo? In this first in-depth study of the Kosovo crisis, Ivo Daalder and Michael O''Hanlon answer these and other questions about the causes, conduct, and consequences of the war. Based on interviews with many of the key participants, they conclude that notwithstanding important diplomatic mistakes before the conflict, it would have been difficult to avoid the Kosovo war. That being the case, U.S. and NATO conduct of the war left much to be desired. For more than four weeks, the Serbs succeeded where NATO failed, forcefully changing Kosovo''s ethnic balance by forcing 1.5 million Albanians from their home and more than 800,000 from the country. Had they chosen to massacre more of their victims, NATO would have been powerless to stop them. In the end, NATO won the war by increasing the scope and intensity of bombing, making serious plans for a ground invasion, and moving diplomacy into full gear in order to convince Belgrade that this was a war Serbia would never win. The Kosovo crisis is a cautionary tale for those who believe force can be used easily and in limited increments to stop genocide, mass killing, and the forceful expulsion of entire populations. Daalder and O''Hanlon conclude that the crisis holds important diplomatic and military lessons that must be learned so that others in the future might avoid the mistakes that were made in this case.

"A great stone bridge built three centuries ago in the heart of the Balkans ... stands witness to the countless lives played out upon it" and to the sufferings of the people of Bosnia.--Cover.

For over four years, Washington responded to war in Bosnia by handing the problem to the Europeans to resolve and substituting high-minded rhetoric for concerted action. Then, in the summer of 1995, the Clinton administration suddenly shifted course, deciding to assert the leadership that would prove necessary to end the war in Bosnia. This book based on numerous interviews with key participants in the decisionmaking process and written by a former National Security Council aide examines how the policy to end the war took shape. Getting to Dayton is a powerful case study of how determined individuals can exploit their positions to change U.S. government policy on crucial issues. In so doing, Daalder not only explains how Washington launched the diplomacy that culminated at Dayton, but also why the subsequent peace proved to be difficult to establish. Ivo H. Daalder is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. From 1995 to 1996 he served on the National Security Council staff as Director for European Affairs, where he was responsible for coordinating U.S. policy for Bosnia. His most recent publications include The United States and Europe in the Global Arena (1998) and Bosnia After SFOR: Options for Continued U.S. Engagement (1997). He is co-author of Winning Ugly: NATO''s War to Save Kosovo, which will be published in 2000.

In American Foreign Policy and Yugoslavia, 1939-1941, Ivo Tasovac contends that Yugoslavia acted as an unwilling prop for American involvement in World War II. As a result of America''s commitment to Britain as an exception to their doctrine of neutrality, and of Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt''s shared eagerness for conflict and suppression of Germany, the war and ensuing Communist takeover of Eastern Europe were inevitable. With Yugoslavia cast as the endangered barrier between the Germans and the Mediterranean, Churchill was able to establish an unquestionable need for U.S. military action. Britain''s leader could seize on the small country as a staging area for activating the Soviets in order to eliminate Italy and weaken Germany in the process. Tasovac contends that pressure from the British government and the American diplomats investigating the situation in fact enforced the Serbian coup d''etat to overthrow Prince Paul of Yugoslavia when he appeared sympathetic to Germany, even though the Serbians had no intentions of fighting. With all of the ingredients for conflict in place, the ensuing struggle for Yugoslavian freedom was unavoidable. By bringing the war to the Balkans, Churchill and Roosevelt shaped the next half-century of international politics and domination. American Foreign Policy and Yugoslavia documents and analyzes the decisions and policies that made this action so detrimental to Yugoslavia and other Balkan states. Tasovac brings new light to the realities of the engagement in Yugoslavia and the long-standing effects, discarding the appearances of history for the truth. This study is ideal for a broad audience of scholars, including those interestedin NATO policies applied to the Balkan states, the relationship between the United States and those states, Franklin D. Roosevelt''s influence on the world stage during his presidency and World War II, and the history of Yugoslavia as a whole.

The Drina bridge, a bridge that spans generations, links early sixteenth century Ottoman Empire with the pre-WWI Austro-Hungarian Empires; giving a glimpse into day-to-day living under such diverse regimes. Chronicles the lives of Catholics, Moslems, and Orthodox Christians -- with their deep seated loyalties to their respective faiths, but giving hope that it is possible for such diverse groups to live in peace -- with each other.

Democracy is not a universal good, it is a political system, and like all political systems it is open to corruption. The word ''democracy'' means ''rule by the people'', not rule by a simple majority. To achieve rule by all the people, it used to be accepted that as much of civil life should be kept out of party politics as possible. A mixed constitution was one way of achieving this. By absorbing into itself the institutions of civil society, the modern democratic state has become an ever more pervasive ''tyranny of the majority'' accountable to the electorate only once every few years. The powers it has assumed, together with the powers of corporations, represent a ''new world order'' that respects neither freedom, the individual, the vulnerable nor, in a true sense, the rule of law.

The Prologue to Bishop Ivo of Chartres'' Decretum and Panormia has long been recognized as a seminal text in medieval canon law. It can be fairly called the first extended treatment of ecclesiastical jurisprudence. In its attention to categories of law and context, it also demonstrates the nascent scholastic method. This treatise on the tension between rigor and mercy in judgment - and how they could be reconciled through dispensation - spoke not only to legal and theological concerns of the early twelfth century but also to enduring questions about the nature and limits of ecclesiastical law. This book offers the first critical edition of the text based not only on extensive examination of the manuscripts but also the sources Ivo used in its composition. This enables a detailed examination of the text, which, from start to finish, reveals Ivo''s conviction that love, caritas, was the essence of canon law.

A Bosnian Franciscan, Fra Peter, is put in an Istanbul jail, wrongly accused of plotting against Ottoman rule.

"A splendidly illuminating book." —The New York Times Like it or not, George W. Bush has launched a revolution in American foreign policy. He has redefined how America engages the world, shedding the constraints that friends, allies, and international institutions once imposed on its freedom of action. In America Unbound, Ivo Daalder and James Lindsay caution that the Bush revolution comes with serious risks–and, at some point, we may find that America’s friends and allies will refuse to follow his lead, leaving the U.S. unable to achieve its goals. This edition has been extensively revised and updated to include major policy changes and developments since the book’s original publication.

"In 1935 Raika Radakovich died in Belgrade on Stishka Street, No. 16 A, of natural causes. Case dismissed- by the police, but not by the Nobel-prize winning Yugoslavian who reconstructs her life into this novel. A miserly old maid with one obsession, to make a million, Miss Radakovich starts out to avenge her ruined father''s death by living in the "world of money." She husbanded capital happily in Sarajevo from 1906 until 1919, when money was suddenly declared extinct and she was accused of war-profiteering. With bloodless single-mindedness, she began again in Belgrade only to die alone without achieving her dream.... A poetic story of a life without poetry, again Andric has managed to invest a simple narrative with the morality and some of the quality of the folk tale. The climate of Yugoslavia in one of its most historic moments is, in itself, almost enough. Andric never judges; his story does it for him. Although not as unusual as some of his other books which have appeared here (Bosnian Chronicle, etc.), the novel will be welcomed by those who know his work, admire his artistry in his contemporary, native idiom."--Kirkus