Nationalism and Yugoslavia: Education, Yugoslavism and the Balkans before World War II

by Pieter Troch

Overview

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 Pieter Troch draws on previously unpublished sources from the domain of education to show how the state's nationalities policy initially allowed for a flexible and inclusive Yugoslav nationhood, and how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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780857737687
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	08/18/2015
Series:	International Library of Historical Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	328
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Pieter Troch is currently Lecturer in History at the University of Ghent, where he completed his PhD.