American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages

Review
Author(s): Emilian Kavalski
Review by: Emilian Kavalski
Source: The Slavic and East European Journal, Vol. 47, No. 1 (Spring, 2003), pp. 148-150
Published by: American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages
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148 Slavic and East European Journal

and were "incitedfrom outside the country:namely, by the GreaterSerbianand Greater

Croatianreligious-nationalmythologiesand nationalisticprogrammes"(219). He then exam-
ines the structureof these mythologies,and the accompanying"nationalisation" of religious
identities,beforeexaminingthe questionof the "survivalof a Bosnianreligiousmosaic"(227).
"The unavoidableconsequencesof this religious-nationalhomogenizationand exclusivism
weregrowingdiscomfortand distrusttowardotherreligiousandnationalcommunitieswithin
the country.[ ... ] In the militantperspectiveof the new religious-national
ideologicalmyths,
differencesbetweenthe inhabitantsof Bosnia-Herzegovina becamethe sourceof all troubles"
(227-28).
This book is an excellent source for those who want to learn more about the religious
developmentin the Balkans from the earliest times to the present. The way in which the
differenttraditionsbuilt on and incorporatedelementsof earliertraditions,as well as inter-
acted with each other, providesa fascinatingmosaichere. It testifiesto the fact that histori-
callyconflictwas not the norm, and religiousidentitieswere not definedover and againstthe
"other."

JamesSatterwhite,BlufftonCollege

SabrinaP. Ramet. BalkanBabel: TheDisintegrationof Yugoslaviafrom the Death of Titoto

the Fall of Milogevic.Fourth Edition. Boulder: WestviewPress, 2002. Bibliography.
Index. xxii + 426 pp., $90.00(cloth), $35.00(paper).
Dennis P. Hupchickand Harold E. Cox. The PalgraveConciseHistoricalAtlas of Eastern
Europe.New Yorkand Houndmills:Palgrave,2001. Bibliography.Index. vii + 130pp.,
$55.00(cloth), $19.95 (paper).
DennisP. Hupchickand HaroldE. Cox. ThePalgraveConciseHistoricalAtlasof theBalkans.
New Yorkand Houndmills:Palgrave,2001. Bibliography.Index. xii + 128 pp., $55.00
(cloth), $19.95(paper).

Mappingthe past, be it recent or distant,is alwaysboundto bringforth questionsas to the

agenda, reasons and implicationsof such historicalexplorations.In spite of (or, indeed,
because of) such challenges, it is to the credit of SabrinaP. Ramet as well as Dennis P.
Hupchickand Harold E. Cox that their volumes present extremelyerudite, insightfuland
perceptiverenditionsof theircontroversialtopics.
Ramet's Balkan Babel is alreadyrunninginto its fourth edition, attestingto her astute,
dedicatedand well-researchedanalysisof the disintegrationof Yugoslavia.In a time when
writingabout the Balkans was more or less "fashionable"in academicand quasi-academic
circles(both becauseof the lack of specificknowledgeabout the Balkansand the incompre-
hensiblecrueltyand violence of the conflicts),Ramet successfullycompileda coherentstudy
of the factorsthatended the mythof SouthSlavunity.The mainsuggestionof BalkanBabelis
that the break-upof Yugoslaviawas the result of governmentillegitimacythat had plagued
this countryever since its firstblueprint- the Kingdomof the Serbs, Croatsand Slovenes-
cameaboutin 1918.Rametsuccessfullyarguesthatillegitimategovernmentstend to initiatea
dynamicthat drawsinto its vortex economic deterioration,politicalrabble-rousingand the
unscrupulousabuse of power by the rulingelite. In the case of Yugoslavia,such a system
introduceda perennialsense of crisisand, hence, the proclivityto respondand have recourse
to extrememeasuresin orderto justifyparticularpolicies. In this fashion,Ramet'sinvestiga-
tion offers one of the most coherentexplanationsand understandingsof the Balkancrisesof
the 1990s.Buildingupon her experiencewith the regionas well as knowledgeand apprecia-

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 Reviews 149

tion of its diversity,she proficientlyavoidsthe trapof primordialism(unlikequite a numberof

recentanalystsof that period). Insteadof explainingaway the ethniccleansingthat occurred
throughthe hackneyedage-oldhatreds,BalkanBabeldriveshome the pointthatthe Yugoslav
conflictswere concocted in the mismanagement,misrepresentationand misuse of recent
events by an increasinglyillegitimateand oppressive(both in economicand politicalterms)
system of governance.As with previouseditions, the fourth one is updatedto the current
developmentsin the region.The most significantadditionis the partdealingwith the transfer
of powerin Serbiafrom Milosevicto Kostunicaand Djindjic (Chapter14). Ramet offers an
extremelydetailedaccountof the dramaticevents that led to Milosevi6'soustingfrompower.
She also rationalizesthese developmentsin the contextof her hypothesisof legitimategovern-
ment. The latter,however,is also the only letdownof the book. In spite of the commendable
effortandthe painstakingdescription,Rametfailsto convincethatthe post-Milosevicgovern-
ment of Serbiais legitimate(probablybecause it is not, somethingthat the authordoes not
discuss).However, despite this flaw, the fourthedition of Balkan Babel underlinesthe vol-
ume's place as one of the most authoritativeand informativeanalyses of the events that
shatteredYugoslaviain the 1990s.Moreover,Ramet'svolumeis not merelya book aboutthe
Balkans;it is also a statement on InternationalRelations theory and political science in
general.Using Yugoslaviaas a case-studythe authormakesa point in favorof a more ideas-
driven (or what some might call constructivist)approachto global politics. Said otherwise,
Balkan Babel is simultaneouslyan excellent source of insight and a reference for further
researchboth for students of the Balkansand for those interestedin the broaderfield of
internationalrelations.
The two volumesauthoredby Hupchickand Cox come fromthe sameline of dedicatedand
meticulousresearchas that of Ramet. However, their mappingof historicaldevelopments
remainscloser to the visualrepresentationof intra-and inter-regionalevents in two elusive,
yet oft-mentionedregions:EasternEuropeand the Balkans.Most commentatorsof the post-
1989developmentsin Europehave designatedstates as formingparticularregionalgroupings
on the continentwithoutpayingattentionto the issue of definitionand belonging.In other
words,there has been little mentionas to where "EasternEurope"or "the Balkans"lie and
what they encompass.Instead, more often than not, both terms have been used with the
presumptionthat there is an establishedconsensuson the areasthey designate.However,the
emergenceof termssuch as "CentralEasternEurope,""WesternBalkans,"and "Southeast-
ern Europe"have brought into question such assumptions.In this context Hupchickand
Cox'svolumesprovidean extremelypersuasiveand clear interpretationregardingthe politi-
cal, culturaland historicbackgroundof the conceptsof "EasternEurope"and "theBalkans."
The authorshave done this by adoptinga chronologicalapproachto the historyof the peoples
that inhabitboth regions.
The HistoricalAtlas of EasternEurope,revisedand updatedfrom the firstedition, gives a
broadoverviewof the turbulenthistoryof the areafromthe fourthcenturyto the present.The
maps that Hupchickand Cox select offer the perfectmeans for understandingkey elements
that formthe backgroundto the richheritageand diversityof this region. More significantly,
this collection illuminatesthe complex dynamic of ethnic and culturalinteractionof the
peoplesof EasternEurope. Hupchickand Cox intuitthat the particularsaboutthe regioncan
only be graspedin the context of its multifariousdimensions,and they emphasizethe self-
imposedlimitationsof recentdiscoursesof ethno-nationalism.
The latterpoint is furtherunderscoredin the HistoricalAtlas of theBalkans.Hupchickand
Cox organizethe volume accordingto the historicalinformationthat they emphasize.They
startfromthe presumptionthatthe Balkansis a sub-regionof EasternEurope,andin thisway
the HistoricalAtlas of the Balkansis to be viewed in the context of the previousvolume (it is
also an excellentcompanionto Ramet'sbook). Cognizantof the underlyingissues as well as
historyof the region, the authorsare awareof and successfullyavoid the dangersthat carto-

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150 Slavic and East European Journal

graphical representations tend to pose. By offering insights into the conditions on the ground,
Hupchick and Cox make the point that similar maps have been (and still continue to be) used
to justify benighted nationalistic myths and political hate-speech in the Balkans.
But maps are merely simplified representations of much more complex and colorful pictures
(a point made brilliantly by rendering the maps in two- rather than full-process color). The
short essays which accompany each map in both volumes serve as a kind of compass as well as
key to its understanding. In this way, Hupchick and Cox compile an exceptional summary of
the history of Eastern Europe and the Balkans. Both Atlases are handy and comprehensive
tools for studying the diversity of these regions and are excellent references for further
explorations.
These are only few of the main points made in Ramet's Balkan Babel and Hupchick and
Cox's Historical Atlases. It is always a pleasure to read books that are written so intelligently
and with such scope. At the same time, reviewing and especially condensing their wisdom has
not been an easy task and is bound to overlook some of their finer points. These volumes
would be of great value and use both to the experienced student and the neophyte of Euro-
pean history in general and in particular to those interested in contextualizing the post-Cold
War developments in the eastern part of the continent.

Emilian Kavalski, Loughborough University, UK.

Radovan Lucic, ed. Lexical Norm and National Language: Lexicography and Language Policy
in South-Slavic Languages after 1989. Series: Der Welt der Slaven Sammelbande, vol. 14.
Mfinchen: Otto Sagner, 2002. 192 pp., 30 Euros (cloth).

The dissolution of the former Serbo-Croatian into three or four official languages or norms
(Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian plus/minus Montenegrin; henceforth BCS) is a process that
concerns scholarship, policy, and everyday practice. Based on a conference entitled "Lan-
guage Policy and Lexicography in Slavic Languages after 1989," held in Amsterdam in 2000,
this collection contains a majority of articles (sixteen out of twenty-one) concerned with BCS
and makes valuable contributions to understanding the complexities of the break-up. Some
essentialize events as natural or inevitable, whereas others confront the challenges of the
situation in a spirit of critical inquiry.
Raymond Derez's introduction (11-18) gives a theoretical overview. The author correctly
points out that Ijekavian was the dialect agreed upon by those who supported a unified BCS
standard in the nineteenth century, but misses the fact that the 1850 Vienna Literary Agreement
did specify an Ijekavian variant, albeit the formulation was by example rather than rule. Also,
his formulation that Macedonian was standardized "in a way to make it as different as possible
from Bulgarian" (16) is misleading. Relative distribution of dialectal features trumped differen-
tiation as a motivating factor, e.g. the standard Macedonian third singular present tense ending
is zero (as in Bulgarian and Serbian) rather than -t (a feature limited to the Ohrid-Prespa
region). The author's description of the political factors determining the relationship between
Flemish and Dutch is enlightening, especially in its analogy to current debates taking place
among Albanians over whether or not to reinstate Geg or Geg elements in the Albanian
standard.
Sigrid Darinka Vl6kl gives a useful general overview of the current situation of Bosnian.
Characteristic Sarajevo slang processes such as creating neologisms by reversing syllables (e.g.
zdravo > vozdra, 34) deserve more attention from sociolinguists.
MiloS Okuka (38-48) focuses on the question of Montenegrin versus Serbian and, after

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