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John Paul Newman, Yugoslavia in the Shadow of War: Veterans and the Limits
of State Building, 1903–1945

Article  in  European History Quarterly · July 2017

DOI: 10.1177/0265691417711663ad

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572 European History Quarterly 47(3)

documents, and Churches certainly aspire to do more than merely influence legisla-
tion. Yet, that would raise the problem of measuring such impact on wider issues,
which Mudrov in this book has effectively resolved through limiting and focusing
his analysis. Secondly, while it would be unjustified to demand a lengthy discussion
on Islam in a book about Christian Churches, references to Islam are scarce even
where it would seem to be relevant. Sticking with the two case studies that Mudrov
examines: was the fact that most immigrants come from Muslim countries in any
way relevant for the Churches’ view of immigration? What are the implications of
the Churches’ insistence on introducing the Christian heritage in the European
constitution? Does that imply Islam’s otherness or ‘non-Europeanness’? How do
various Churches conceive of European integration and the enlargement process,
and does it apply to some or all predominantly Muslim countries, such as Turkey,
Kosovo, Albania or Bosnia? Perhaps these discussions could have been included
here and there in place of the frequent repetitions of the main claims and conclu-
sions in every section, which often seem redundant as Mudrov’s argumentation is
clear, well organized and easy to follow.
Overall, Mudrov draws attention to the oft-overlooked role of the Churches and
shows the need for it to be studied further. He has succeeded in registering a variety
of organizations, ways and means by which Churches participate in the European
integration process, and provides a methodologically sound discussion and case
studies to follow and measure that impact. His book portrays Christian Churches
as distinct players on the EU political arena due to their historical significance,
their role in identity and value formation, and their specific ties with the states. It
shows the need for further studies and considerations of the Churches’ role, which
might be even more relevant today, in an atmosphere of rising populism and
nationalism, with EU enlargement fatigue.

John Paul Newman, Yugoslavia in the Shadow of War: Veterans and the Limits of State Building, 1903–
1945, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2015; 296 pp.; 9781107070769, £67.00 (hbk)

Reviewed by: Rok Stergar, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

The role of First World War veterans in the establishment of the Fascist regime in
Italy or the National Socialist dictatorship in Germany, or in the destabilization of
France has been thoroughly researched. Yet veterans’ roles in the politics of inter-
war Yugoslavia and specifically in its transition from a constitutional multi-party
democracy to an authoritarian regime have received scarce attention. John Paul
Newman’s book situates Yugoslav developments in their wider European context.
Additionally, he analyses veterans’ role in the violence that engulfed Yugoslavia
after it was defeated and occupied by Axis powers in 1941.
Newman persuasively demonstrates that after 1918 many veterans became
increasingly disappointed in the political developments of the newly established
Kingdom. They started rejecting multi-party democracy and gravitated towards
the authoritarian rule that was established in some European states, including
Book Reviews 573

neighbouring Italy and Greece, at the time. They believed the rule of a strongman
would safeguard the wartime achievements they had sacrificed so much for.
They also wanted to bring back the unity of purpose that was the fictionalized
distinctive characteristic of pre-war politics in Serbia and its wartime efforts.
Several veterans’ organizations openly advocated for the destruction of democ-
racy and argued that only the new king Alexander could save the Yugoslav project.
Not only that, veterans – along with the so-called war-youth generation – were an
important part of several violent, paramilitary, and even proto-fascist organiza-
tions that appeared in the 1920s. The ‘Organization of Yugoslav Nationalists’, the
ORJUNA, was probably the most important of these groups and it, as Newman
notes, ‘had called for a dictatorship to replace the state’s dysfunctional parliamen-
tary system’ (156). Newman demonstrates that veterans and their organizations
supported King Alexander’s abolition of the Yugoslav constitution in 1929 and the
king’s regime. Furthermore, as limited parliamentary rule was reintroduced after
Alexander’s death in October of 1934, militant veterans continued to advocate for
authoritarian rule. Dimitrije Ljotić, the leader of the fascist Zbor (Rally), was
convinced that only a return to the ‘organic community of warriors’, supposedly
forged in the trenches of the First World War, could save Yugoslavia (229).
Ljotić was certainly not the only veteran who entertained similar thoughts.
Newman clearly shows that many saw a return to the mythical values of the
front-line fighters as the only solution to the problems of Yugoslavia. However,
as some veterans were venturing into militant politics many more were obviously
not. Newman acknowledges that the militants were politically marginal; Zbor did
not manage to return a single member to the Yugoslav parliament in the two
elections it contested. In fact, the party’s candidates only received a few thousand
votes, most of them in Ljotić’s hometown (230). He also shows that several veter-
ans’ organizations were largely apolitical and were primarily interested in improv-
ing the often difficult position of veterans. Finally, he describes the popularity of
anti-militarism amongst veterans. Yet a more systematic analysis of the prevalence
of militant political tendencies amongst veterans would have provided readers with
a better insight into the role the legacy of the war played in Yugoslavia’s shift from
a democracy into an authoritarian state.
Newman does address an important particularity of Yugoslavia’s history. Its
veterans, contrary to those in most other states, belonged to two very different
groups. There were veterans of the victorious Serbian and Montenegrin armies
(and a few so-called volunteers); but there were also veterans of the vanquished
Austro-Hungarian army. Many were facing similar problems in the post-war years
and so were able to work together for veterans’ welfare, for example. Yet, the
Serbian veterans held an entirely different position in Yugoslav society. As
Newman shows, their experiences were celebrated and remembered. They were
also a part of the ‘culture of victory’ that included veterans from other victorious
states as well. Austro-Hungarian veterans, on the other hand, were often pushed
aside, forgotten, or even vilified. Not surprisingly then, a ‘culture of defeat’ devel-
oped amongst them. Some became members of right-wing revisionist groups;
574 European History Quarterly 47(3)

several prominent former Austro-Hungarian officers and generals were active sup-
porters of Croatian radical nationalists and their anti-Yugoslav organizations.
Yugoslavia in the Shadow of War is thoroughly researched, well-argued and very
readable. Non-specialists would benefit from more background information on the
complicated politics of the South Slav state and a map or two would certainly be a
welcome addition. Yet, on the whole, John Paul Newman’s book is an important
contribution not only to the historiography on Yugoslavia between the wars but
also of the whole region.

Stanley G. Payne and Jesús Palacios, Franco: A Personal and Political Biography, The University of
Wisconsin Press: Madison, WI, 2014; 632 pp., 38 b/w photos; 9780299302108, $34.95 (hbk)

Reviewed by: Claudio Hernández Burgos, University of Granada, Spain

Some recent accounts dealing with twentieth-century Spain, especially the period
from the rise of the Spanish Second Republic in 1931 to the Transition to democ-
racy after the dictator Franco’s death in 1975, have taken ‘historical objectivity’ as
a banner to declare themselves ‘neutral’. These studies have portrayed a polarized
and ideologized outlook mainly dominated by extremist perspectives, either for-
mulated by Franco’s apologists or by anti-Francoist left-wing historians. That is
the case with Franco: A Personal and Political Biography, written by renowned
Hispanist Stanley Payne and Spanish journalist Jesús Palacios. As claimed in the
introduction, the book constitutes ‘an attempt to offer a more rounded account of
Franco’s life, more objective and balanced than either the denunciation or the
hagiographies’ (xii). The problem is that this aspiration of becoming a ‘third
way’ in a picture dominated by extremist accounts leads to a kind of ‘soft’ revi-
sionism that, although not neo-Francoist, tends to be excessively lenient with the
general and his regime.
The book comes in a time when biographical accounts of the Spanish dictator
have acquired special prominence. Some of them have paid attention to the con-
struction of Franco’s charismatic leadership, such as Franco, Caudillo por la Gracia
de Dios, written by Francisco Sevillano, or Antonio Cazorla’s Franco: The
Biography of the Myth. Some other monographs are more interested in examining
the most controversial features of the dictatorial rule. It is worth mentioning La
otra cara del Caudillo: mitos y realidades en la biografı´a de Franco, written by Ángel
Viñas or the collective volume Las caras de Franco: una revisión histórica del
Caudillo y su re´gimen, edited by Enrique Moradiellos. The book under review
inserts itself in this latter trend as it is more than just a biography of Francisco
Franco. In fact, this lengthy volume – more than six hundred pages – also contains
a host of counter-arguments against what the authors consider to be the prevalent,
and not fully justified, assertions about Franco and his policies.
The main consequence of this narrative choice is a benevolent – sometimes
overly exculpatory – interpretation of Franco’s thoughts, decisions and acts,
which hardly fits with the promised balanced and equitable overview. Payne and

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