The Balkans

Abstract

The most useful and indispensable history of the Balkans from the time of the Turkish conquest is L. S. Stavrianos, The Balkans since 1453 (N.Y., Holt, R. & W., cl and pb 1958); it has a full bibliography for each country and period. Also useful is W. S. Vucinich, The Ottoman Empire: its record and legacy (N.Y., Van Nostrand, pb 1965). The Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 4 and the New Cambridge Modern History, vol. 2, ch. 17 (Camb., 1958) provide some information, but are more useful for reference work than as textbooks. More readable and detailed information can be found in G. Ostrogorski, History of the Byzantine State (Blackwell, 2nd edn 1969). Chapters 4 and 8 cover the early period of Balkan history. This can be supplemented by the early chapters of the old-fashioned but still indispensable J. A. R. Marriott, The Eastern Question (Oxf., 4th edn 1940), W. W. White, The Process of Change in the Ottoman Empire (U. Chicago P., 1937) and M. P. Price, A History of Turkey (Allen & U., 2nd edn 1961). General accounts of the different regions of the Balkans can be found in S. Runciman, The First Bulgarian Empire (Bell, 1930), a detailed but unique account of the early period, and in H. W. V. Temperley, A History of Serbia (Bell, 1917), which is still invaluable. Books in English on Albania and Montenegro are few, but J. Swire, Albania: the rise of a kingdom (Williams & N., 1929) and F. S. Stevenson, A History of Montenegro (Jarrold, 1912) provide some useful information, mainly on the modern period.