Try to ignore the accusations of bias below
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This book was in my shopping basket for almost a year before I finally bought it. My hesitation was due to accusations of pro-Croat bias in some of the reviews above. Having now read the book, I wish to defend the author and, not being of Serb, Croat or any other ex-Yugoslav origin, perhaps I am better qualified to opine on the matter than some of the reviewers below.
This is an absorbing and well-written account of a country which, although largely unknown in the UK before 1991, has a rich and fascinating history. It had a centuries-long relationship with Hungary and the Hapsburg Monarchy and it was on the front-line in the wars against the Ottoman Empire. Dubrovnik was an independent maritime republic with a remarkable capacity for survival - in fact, it took Napoleon to bring it to an end. The controversy in Croatia's history starts in 1918, when Croatia was absorbed (more or less voluntarily, although they soon regretted it) into what then became Yugoslavia.
With the bitterness of the war in the early 1990's still fresh in people's minds, it is, perhaps, impossible to write a book on this subject that both Serbs and Croats would regard as objective. However, the suggestion that this book is a pro-Croatian polemic is quite unfair. There is no attempt here to conceal or gloss over massacres of Serbs or Bosnians or other war crimes perpetrated by Croats. Neither does the author pull any punches in dealing with Croatia's contemptible efforts to carve up Bosnia with Serbia or the massive ethnic cleansing of Serbs that followed the recapture of the Krajina in Operation Storm. Croatia's "Father of the Nation", Franjo Tudjman, does not, in fact, come through as a particularly savoury character in this book, by any standards.
That, however, will not be enough for many readers from ex-Yugoslavia, particulary when the author talks about the origins of the war. The view of Marcus Tanner is that Milosevic planned the whole thing down to the last detail and that there was nothing to stop him because, in the Yugoslav National Army, he had the biggest army in south-eastern Europe right behind him. No doubt, such a view will never appeal to proponents of the theory that Serbs were spontaneously rising up against Croat/Bosnian Muslim tyranny, to those who blame Germany, the US, NATO, etc., to any of the Yugo-nostalgics on the far left who mourn the passing of communist Yugoslavia or to those (particularly prevalent in British government circles in the early 1990's) who put it all down to Balkan savagery and continue to defend Britain's disastrous policy of non-intervention.
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Good histroy in general but.....
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The early parts of Croatian history are described in detail and are accurate. However, the recent war in Croatia is simply referred to as being Serbian aggression and Tanner reserves very little criticism for Tudjman's discriminatory policies towards Croatia's Serbian population and Croatian war crimes in general, although he does mention a couple instances. The photographs are also propagandist, showing the destruction of Vukovar, Croats fleeing Dalmatia, a destroyed Catholic church, Croatian victory over the rebel Serbs etc but only showing one photograph of Serb refugees fleeing Krajina in 1995.
I think Tanner's book would have been more complete if his recent history wasn't so biased.
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Good on early history, but modern nationalist polemic
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Croatia has a history of being referred to as 'an aside' in modern histories, so Marcus Tanner's book is overdue in its tracing of Croation history through its medieval and early modern times. It is weakest in its analysis of recent events, where the author's passionate love of modern Croatia is both a strength and weakness, in that the tragic events of the 1990s are ascribed entirely to anti-Croat malice. A very useful history, and a passionate nationalist polemic about modern events, if that is what you want.
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A book of truth
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This book tells the truth about many things. It tells the truth about my people and does not side step the facts that are impotant in my view this book answers so many of those questions that the news lets go with out answer.
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Extract from ýBooks on Bosniaý, London 1999
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History of Croatia from the middle ages to the present day, summarizing a wealth of information unavailable elsewhere to the English-language reader. Readable, succinct and often intelligent, it is weakest on World War II and the period since, failing adequately to challenge the assumptions of contemporary Croat nationalism.
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