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 Yugoslavias 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 19912001 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.

Gorana Ognjenovic is Research Fellow at the University of Oslo, Norway.Jasna Jozelic is a PhD candidate and research advisor at the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo.

1. Introduction  Nationalism and the Politicization of History in the Former Yugoslavia2. Post-Communism and Recent History: The Case of Croatia3. Reclaiming Illyria: The Notorious Usefulness of Archaeology to Communism and Nationalism alike in Yugoslavia and after 4. The Europeanization of Memory at the Jasenovac Memorial Museum5. The Political instrumentalization of a Site of the Holocaust: Contested memories of the Semlin camp in Belgrade6. Thrice Plundered: The Politics of Restitution with Regard to the Jews of Bosnia and Herzegovina 7. Himmlers SS Hand¸ar Division8. The Highway of Memorial Symbolism: A Thin Red Line9. Constructing a Truth Regime: The 1999 NATO Intervention in Serbian Political Memory 10. National Manhood: Martyrs, freedom fighters and statesman in Kosovos state-making11. The Politicization of History in North Macedonia(19412018) 12. Djilas Reconsidered: The Attitude of Montenegro towards Djilas after 198913. Slovenia: From the Best European Pupil to Perpetrator of One of the Most Egregious ECHR Violations14. Mass Myths to Mass Graves: Politicizing Memory in Serbia as a Prelude to Genocide in Bosnia 15. YU Rearview Mirror: Ways of Remembering Yugoslavia16. Reconfiguring and Imposing Identity: Politicization of Identity in Bosnia and Herzegovina 17. Conclusion18. Afterword