"This book is very timely: the instrumentalization of history for political goals has become a pressing issue and worrisome feature of many polities, to the point of challenging even the most consolidated democracies. Focusing on Yugoslavia's fragile successor states, the authors explore plurifold analytical levels, including local, regional, transnational, European and global perspectives. The authors comprehensively demonstrate how politicizing history, in the postwar and postcommunist societies of what was once Yugoslavia, has prevented both reconciliation and democratization." -Sabine Rutar, Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Germany "Ognjenovic and Jozelic focus here on the former Yugoslavia before and after its fragmentation to explore and evaluate the various uses of histories by nationalists, both those who promoted 'federal nationalism' and those who peddle specific local nationalisms in successor states. The book deals specifically with the Western Balkans, but these developments have their parallels in many other parts of the world, and the book will be useful well beyond the region on which the study is based." -Paul Mojzes, Professor Emeritus, Rosemont College, USA "The former Yugoslavia has become a battlefield for the 'Memory Wars', in spite of the wealth of judicially established facts and available evidences gathered about the atrocities in the region, and various initiatives aimed at dealing with the past and efforts at transitional justice. Focusing on three periods of Yugoslav history - the Second World War, socialist Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav wars of 1991-2001 - the contributors show that despite these efforts to deal with the past, sustainable peace and reconciliation across ethnic and religious groups remain a distant aim." -Marijana Toma, Center for Cultural Decontamination, Serbia This book analyzes how nationalists in the former Yugoslavia have politicized history to further their political agendas, retaining and prolonging conflict among different cultural and religious groups, and impeding the process of lasting reconciliation. It explores how narratives have been (mis)used, drawing on examples from all of the former Yugoslav republics. With contributors from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, it provides a vital assessment of how nationalists have attempted to (re)shape public collective memory and relativize facts.

This book, the first of two volumes, challenges decades of superficial and selective rhetoric about Tito's Yugoslavia. The essays explore some of the gaps in the existing descriptions of the country that have existed for decades. Contributors cover a range of topics including the abolition of the multi-party system, nonalignment, and the 1968 reinforcing position among others.

This book explores how school history textbooks are used to perpetuate nationalistic policies within divided regions. Exploring the 'divide and rule' politics across ex-Yugoslav successor states, the editors and contributors draw upon a wide range of case studies from across the region. Textbooks and other educational media provide the foundations upon which the new generation build understanding about their own context and the events that are creating their present. By promoting nationalistic politics in such media, textbooks themselves can be used as tools to further promote and preserve ongoing hostility between ethnic groups following periods of conflict. This edited collection will appeal to scholars of educational media, history education and post-conflict societies.

Arne Johan Vetlesen Ours is the era of globalisation. This means that the world is expanding; pressing a key, I can immediately reach persons living in another continent; products travel across the world to the store just around the corner from me; thanks to modern media, I am cognisant of events taking place right now thousands of kilometers away. The world is expanding in the sense that yesterday's time-space limits are rendered irrelevant; my communications, my needs, my aspirations, transcend all such givens. Whatever confronts me as part of my here-and-now, as making up my present contextuality, I can - and will - easily transcend and leave it behind. That the world is expanding means I am expanding, insofar as my range of action, my horizon for thinking, indeed for existing, is perpetually expanding. Expansion as such is forever-happening; it is without limits. This is what we are being told about the nature of globalisation. It rings true; or more to the point, it sounds trivial. But perhaps it is neither. Let's make a new start. Ours is the era of globalisation. This means that the world is shrinking. It is becoming smaller and smaller. It imposes itself upon me, wherever I go, whatever I undertake to do. It exerts all kinds of pressure from all kinds of directions, on all kinds of levels: psychologically no less than physically.

This book offers vivid insights into policies of religious education in schools since the series of wars in former Yugoslavia in the 1990's. It traces the segregation among members of different ethnic groups in Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia, which has never been greater or more systematic. It aims to be a necessary step in understanding the origins of this systematic segregation and how it is reproduced in educational practice, asserting that the politicization of religion in the school textbooks is one of the motors responsible for the ongoing ethnic segregation. It also deals with complex aspects of this issue, such as the general situation of religion in the different countries, the social position of churches, the issues of gender, the reconciliation after the Yugoslav Wars, and the integration of the EU.

"This book is very timely: the instrumentalization of history for political goals has become a pressing issue and worrisome feature of many polities, to the point of challenging even the most consolidated democracies. Focusing on Yugoslavia's fragile successor states, the authors explore plurifold analytical levels, including local, regional, transnational, European and global perspectives. The authors comprehensively demonstrate how politicizing history, in the postwar and postcommunist societies of what was once Yugoslavia, has prevented both reconciliation and democratization." -Sabine Rutar, Leibniz Institute for East and Southeast European Studies, Germany "Ognjenovic and Jozelic focus here on the former Yugoslavia before and after its fragmentation to explore and evaluate the various uses of histories by nationalists, both those who promoted 'federal nationalism' and those who peddle specific local nationalisms in successor states. The book deals specifically with the Western Balkans, but these developments have their parallels in many other parts of the world, and the book will be useful well beyond the region on which the study is based." -Paul Mojzes, Professor Emeritus, Rosemont College, USA "The former Yugoslavia has become a battlefield for the 'Memory Wars', in spite of the wealth of judicially established facts and available evidences gathered about the atrocities in the region, and various initiatives aimed at dealing with the past and efforts at transitional justice. Focusing on three periods of Yugoslav history - the Second World War, socialist Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav wars of 1991-2001 - the contributors show that despite these efforts to deal with the past, sustainable peace and reconciliation across ethnic and religious groups remain a distant aim." -Marijana Toma, Center for Cultural Decontamination, Serbia This book analyzes how nationalists in the former Yugoslavia have politicized history to further their political agendas, retaining and prolonging conflict among different cultural and religious groups, and impeding the process of lasting reconciliation. It explores how narratives have been (mis)used, drawing on examples from all of the former Yugoslav republics. With contributors from a range of disciplinary backgrounds, it provides a vital assessment of how nationalists have attempted to (re)shape public collective memory and relativize facts.

This volume provides a more detailed picture which might surprise those who thought they knew everything about Yugoslavia, as well as we are hoping to inspire others to read more about this historically social experiment that against all odds actually did exist and prospered for a while in the midst of the spiders web of the global political chaos which lasts still today. Contributors cover a range of topics including 'absolute modernity,' film, and the preservation and creation of memory through clothing among others.

This book explores how school history textbooks are used to perpetuate nationalistic policies within divided regions. Exploring the 'divide and rule' politics across ex-Yugoslav successor states, the editors and contributors draw upon a wide range of case studies from across the region. Textbooks and other educational media provide the foundations upon which the new generation build understanding about their own context and the events that are creating their present. By promoting nationalistic politics in such media, textbooks themselves can be used as tools to further promote and preserve ongoing hostility between ethnic groups following periods of conflict. This edited collection will appeal to scholars of educational media, history education and post-conflict societies.

This book, the first of two volumes, challenges decades of superficial and selective rhetoric about Tito's Yugoslavia. The essays explore some of the gaps in the existing descriptions of the country that have existed for decades. Contributors cover a range of topics including the abolition of the multi-party system, nonalignment, and the 1968 reinforcing position among others.

This volume provides a more detailed picture which might surprise those who thought they knew everything about Yugoslavia, as well as we are hoping to inspire others to read more about this historically social experiment that against all odds actually did exist and prospered for a while in the midst of the spiders web of the global political chaos which lasts still today. Contributors cover a range of topics including 'absolute modernity,' film, and the preservation and creation of memory through clothing among others.

Arne Johan Vetlesen Ours is the era of globalisation. This means that the world is expanding; pressing a key, I can immediately reach persons living in another continent; products travel across the world to the store just around the corner from me; thanks to modern media, I am cognisant of events taking place right now thousands of kilometers away. The world is expanding in the sense that yesterday's time-space limits are rendered irrelevant; my communications, my needs, my aspirations, transcend all such givens. Whatever confronts me as part of my here-and-now, as making up my present contextuality, I can - and will - easily transcend and leave it behind. That the world is expanding means I am expanding, insofar as my range of action, my horizon for thinking, indeed for existing, is perpetually expanding. Expansion as such is forever-happening; it is without limits. This is what we are being told about the nature of globalisation. It rings true; or more to the point, it sounds trivial. But perhaps it is neither. Let's make a new start. Ours is the era of globalisation. This means that the world is shrinking. It is becoming smaller and smaller. It imposes itself upon me, wherever I go, whatever I undertake to do. It exerts all kinds of pressure from all kinds of directions, on all kinds of levels: psychologically no less than physically.