Constructing Yugoslavia: A Transnational History

by Vesna Drapac

Overview

Vesna Drapac provides an insightful survey of the changing nature of the Yugoslav ideal, demonstrating why Yugoslavism was championed at different times and by whom, and how it was constructed in the minds of outside observers. Covering the period from the 1850s to the death of Tito in 1980, Drapac situates Yugoslavia in the broader international context and examines its history within the more familiar story of Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

This approachable study also explores key themes and debates, including:

- The place of the nation-state within the worldview of nineteenth-century intellectuals
- The memory of war and commemorative practices in the interwar years
- Resistance and collaboration
- The nature of dictatorships
- Gender and citizenship
- Yugoslavia's role from the perspective of the 'Superpowers'

Drawing on a wide range of sources in order to recreate the atmosphere of the period, Constructing Yugoslavia traces the formation of popular perceptions of Yugoslavia and their impact on policy toward Yugoslavs. It is essential reading for anyone with an interest in the history of this fascinating nation, and its ultimate demise

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780333925553
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	03/02/2010
Series:	Europe in Transition: The NYU European Studies Series , #5
Edition description:	2010
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

VESNA DRAPAC is Associate Professor of History at the University of Adelaide, Australia.
VESNA DRAPAC is Associate Professor of History at the University of Adelaide, Australia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements viii

Maps xi

Introduction 1

1 Imagining Savage Europe and Inventing Yugoslavia: 1850-1914 22

2 The Expansion of Gallant Serbia into Yugoslavia: 1914-1920 63

3 A State in Search of a Nation: the Kingdom, 1920-1940 96

4 'The future lies with the federative idea': War and Dissolution, 1941-1945 149

5 'A society almost free': Tito's Yugoslavia 195

Conclusion 237

Chronology 259

Prime Ministers and Presidents 270

Notes 274

Bibliography 316

Index 325