Nationalism and Yugoslavia: Education, Yugoslavism and the Balkans before World War II (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781350153998)

Created after World War I, 'Yugoslavia' was a combination of ethnically, religiously, and linguistically diverse but connected South Slav peoples - Slovenes, Croats and Serbs but also Bosnian Muslims, Macedonians, and Montenegrins - in addition to non-Slav minorities. The Great Powers and the country's intellectual and political elites believed that a coherent identity could be formed in which the different South Slav groups in the state could identify with a single Balkan Yugoslav identity. Pieter Troch draws on previously unpublished sources from the domain of education to show how the state's nationalities policy initially allowed for a flexible and inclusive Yugoslav nationhood, and how that system was slowly replaced with a more domineering and rigid 'top-down' nationalism during the dictatorship of King Alexander I - who banned political parties and coded a strongly politicised Yugoslav national identity. As Yugoslav society became increasingly split between the 'pro-Yugoslav' central regime and 'anti-Yugoslav' opposition, the seeds were sown for the failure of the Yugoslav idea.
Nationalism and Yugoslavia provides a valuable new insight into the complexities of pre-war Yugoslavia.

Author: Pieter Troch
ISBN-10: 1350153990
ISBN-13: 9781350153998
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Language: English
Published: 03/19/2020
Pages: 328
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.84lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.69d