Yugoslavia in the Shadow of War
Veterans and the Limits of State Building, 1903–1945

A study of the impact of the Great War on state and society in Yugoslavia during the interwar period.

John Paul Newman (Author)

9781107070769, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 25 June 2015

296 pages
23.4 x 16 x 1.9 cm, 0.56 kg

'This succinctly written volume will be a welcome read to both experienced scholars of former Yugoslavia as well as those interested more broadly in military, or rather, post-war history.' Vjeran Pavlakovi?, Southeastern Europe

The Yugoslav state of the interwar period was a child of the Great European War. Its borders were superimposed onto a topography of conflict and killing, for it housed many war veterans who had served or fought in opposing armies (those of the Central Powers and the Entente) during the war. These veterans had been adversaries but after 1918 became fellow subjects of a single state, yet in many cases they carried into peace the divisions of the war years. John Paul Newman tells their story, showing how the South Slav state was unable to escape out of the shadow cast by the First World War. Newman reveals how the deep fracture left by war cut across the fragile states of 'New Europe' in the interwar period, worsening their many political and social problems, and bringing the region into a new conflict at the end of the interwar period.

Introduction: liberation and unification
Part I. Ultima Ratio Regnum, the Coming of Alexander's Dictatorship: 1. All the king's men: civil-military relations in Serbia and Yugoslavia, 1903–1921
2. A warriors' caste: veteran and patriotic associations against the state
3. Resurrecting Lazar: modernization, medievalization and the Chetniks in the 'classical south'
Part II. In the Shadow of War: 4. In extremis: death throes and birth pains in the Habsburg south Slav lands
5. Refractions of the Habsburg war: ongoing conflicts and contested commemorations
6. No man's land: the invalid and volunteer questions
Part III. Re-mobilization: 7. Authoritarianism and new war, 1929–1941
8. 'The gale of the world', 1941–1945
Conclusion: brotherhood and unity
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Military history [HBW], European history [HBJD]