Content area
Full text
Balkan Battlegrounds: A Military History of the Yugoslav Conflict, 19901995. Vol. 1. By the Office of Russian and European Analysis, Central Intelligence Agency. Washington: GPO, 2002. Map Case. Photographs. Glossary. Notes. Appendixes. Index. Pp. xxx, 501. Available from the Superintendent of Documents. Tel: 202-512-1800. http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/.
This is the heart of a two-volume study (richly supported with maps) of the wars that resulted from the collapse of Yugoslavia. To use Croce's distinction, it is more chronicle than history; which is to say its fullness of detail often gets in the way of a broad understanding of the flow of events. Reading properly, with open maps, is time consuming and not always proportionally rewarding. In spite of the sound analysis that appears...