Branka Magas, The Destruction of Yugoslavia
Tracing the Break-Up 1980-1992
(London & New York: Verso, 1993)
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Summary: In a collection of essays and articles Branka Magas traces the emergence of nationalism in Yugoslavia in the 1980s and describes the rise of Slobodan Milosevic and the events leading up to the war Yugoslavia.
Evaluation: As any collection of previously published essays, it remains fragmented and does not offer a complete narrative.The essays nevertheless offer an excellent perspective on the evolution of the crisis. It is also one of the books on the war in Yugoslavia which devotes adequate attention on the decade preceding the war.
Author: Branka Magas is a historian and writer who published extensively on Yugoslavia in magazine and journals, such as The New Left Review or The London Review of Books.
Some of the Main Points:
The book describes extensively the transformation of Serbian intellectuals from democratic opposition to nationalism and the subsequent relationship with Milosevic. Magas clearly points to Milosevic for inciting national hatred and evoking the war. At the same time it cites follows the democratization in Slovenia and the development of Yugoslav society throughout the 1980s.