A Concise History of Serbia

An accessible and engaging single-volume history of Serbia from the Early Middle Ages to the present day.

Dejan Djokić (Author)

9781107630215, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 January 2023

582 pages
21.5 x 13.6 x 3.2 cm, 0.71 kg

'Suspicious, even subversive, of the very genre of national history, Dejan Djokić's Concise History of Serbia nevertheless succeeds in offering a comprehensive and accessible chronological narrative of Serbian history, from the Slavic migrations to the present day. … Djokić's synthesis richly supplants political history with perspectives drawn principally from the arts, culture and intellectual life. The book's breadth, clear prose, extensive literature and pluriperspective narration will likely earn it the status of a standard text for both scholars and the general reader.' Vuk Uskoković, Slavonic and East European Review

This accessible and engaging book covers the full span of Serbia's history, from the sixth-century Slav migrations up to the present day. It traces key developments surrounding the medieval and modern polities associated with Serbs, revealing a fascinating history of entanglements and communication between southeastern and wider Europe, sometimes with global implications. This is a history of Serb states, institutions, and societies, which also gives voice to individual experiences in an attempt to understand how the events described impacted the people who lived through them. Although no real continuity between the pre-modern and modern periods exists, Dejan Djokić draws out several common themes, including: migrations; the Serbs' relations with neighbouring empires and peoples; Serbia as a society formed in the imperial borderlands; and the polycentricity of Serbia. The volume also highlights the surprising vitality of Serb identity, and how it has survived in different incarnations over the centuries through reinvention.

Introduction
1. Migration (up to c1150)
2. Empire (c1170–1459)
3. Borderland (1450–1800)
4. Revolution (1788–1858)
5. Independence (1860–1914)
6. War and interwar (1914–1944)
7. Federation to fragmentation (1945–1991)
8. Ruin and recovery (after 1991)
Further reading
Index.

Subject Areas: European history [HBJD]