1981 student demonstrations
A01=Julie A. Mertus
A01=Julie Mertus
albanian schoolchildren
albanians
armed conflict
Author_Julie A. Mertus
Author_Julie Mertus
balkans
bosnia
Category=JBSL
Category=JPV
collective memory
community
conflict
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ethnic conflict
europe
genocide
group identity
historical memory
history
identity
international relations
kelmendi
kosovo
macedonia
martinovic case
military
national identity
nonfiction
paracin massacre
passive resistance
poisoning
political ideology
political science
politics
repression
resistance
serbia
serbian national identity
serbs
violence
war
Product details
- ISBN 9780520218659
- Weight: 590g
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 09 Aug 1999
- Publisher: University of California Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Julie Mertus provides one of the first comprehensive looks at the explosive situation in Kosovo, where years of simmering tensions between Serbs and Albanians erupted in armed conflict in 1998. In a profound and detailed study of national identity and ethnic conflict, Mertus demonstrates how myths and truths can start a war. She shows how our identity as individuals and as members of groups is defined through the telling and remembering of stories. Real or imagined, these stories shape our understanding of ourselves as heroes, martyrs, conquerors, or victims. Once we see ourselves as victims, Mertus claims, we feel morally justified to become perpetrators. Based on a series of interviews conducted in Kosovo, Serbia proper, and Macedonia, this book is one of the first extended treatments of the years leading to war in Kosovo. Mertus examines the formation of Serbian national identity, and closely scrutinizes the hostilities of the region. She shows how myth and experience inform the political ideologies of Kosovo, and explores how these competing beliefs are created and perpetuated.
This sobering overview of the region provides a window into a complex struggle whose repercussions reach far into the international community.
Julie A. Mertus is Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies at American University. She is the coeditor of The Suitcase: Refugees' Voices from Bosnia and Croatia (California, 1997), coauthor of Open Wounds: Human Rights Abuses in Kosovo (1994), and the author of Local Action/Global Change (1999). Mertus's articles on the Kosovo crisis have appeared in major newspapers.
