In this highly original story by Mark Mazower, he dismantles the current clichés of the West about the Balkans and, instead of reproducing its stereotypes, vividly describes how mountains, empires, and religions shaped the lives of the region's inhabitants.

A bridge between Europe and Asia, the Balkans have been exposed to the constant raids of nomadic peoples throughout the centuries. The mountain ranges made agriculture difficult and political control impossible, while allowing small communities to live side by side until the end of the twentieth century.

Empires based on religion rather than ethnic identity shaped customs and beliefs in a way that did not completely disappear with the advent of the modern world. Mazower's narrative spans widely, both temporally—from the Romans to the present day, with intermediary stops in the Byzantine and Ottoman past—and spatially, addressing the former Ottoman territories in Europe as part of a complex yet shared historical heritage.

Mazower, one of the prominent British historians of modern Europe, has written an exceptionally rich and substantial book that not only provides an absolutely essential historical and cultural background for understanding today's Balkan political reality but also gives the reader a new perspective on the relationships of this region with Europe as a whole.

[Excerpt from the text on the back cover of the edition]