John R. Lampe is Emeritus Professor of History at the University of Maryland, College Park, USA. He is the author of Yugoslavia as History: Twice There Was a Country and co-author of Embracing Democracy in the Western Balkans: From Postconflict Struggles toward European Integration.

• List of Maps and TablesPrefaceIntroduction: Decades of War, Decades of Transition1. Balkan States and Imperial Borderlands before the Balkan Wars2. Balkan Wars, First World War, Postwar Settlements, 1914-19223. Struggling with Liberal and National Transitions in the 1920s4. Illiberal Directions During the Depression Decade5. World War, Civil War, and the Communist Advantage6. Communist and Cold War Transitions, 1945-19637. Continuity and Contradictions, 1964-19898. New Trials of War and Integration, 1989-2014NotesSelect BibliographyIndex.

"Rich and highly informative, this multi-layered, comprehensive perspective of a century long history of the Balkans includes many remarkable political, economic and social observations. It fits well as an introduction to the story of the region but also offers new insights for historians." - Othon Anastasakis, Director of the South East European Studies and Director of the European Studies Centre, University of Oxford, UK Praise for the first edition: "When the Berlin Wall fell, South-Eastern Europe merged once again with a distinct identity of its own. It is the great achievement of this erudite comparative study - written by a scholar who is at home with the culture of the region as its economy - to explore the shared problems of the region in the years before the Second World War, and to see positive developments emerging from the bloody experience of post-communist transition." - Geoffrey Swain, University of the West of England, UK "Lampe's book thus provides a reliable comparative synthesis, as well as a strong basis, for future scholarship." - Holly Case, Austrian History Yearbook 39 "Lampe...presents a plausible and coherent argument, rich in detail and supported with well-chosen and well-presented economic data, in support of the view that the Balkans, in their development and ultimate destination - the EU - do not significantly differ from the rest of Europe." - Aleksandar Pavkovic, SEER, The Slavonic and East European Review "An excellent survey of twentieth-century Balkan history." - Raymond Detrez, European History Quarterly