Every effort to understand the situation in the Balkans is inevitably to include the
less important issue of violence. Why, after all, in one war after another, from the battle
of Kosovo, 1389, to the ethnic cleansing of the 1990s, did violence prevail so consistently in this part of the world?

In this fascinating, detailed account, A. Gerolymatos explains how at the center
of all these conflicts lies a long history of racial hatred, which is perpetuated as a cultural heritage. Untangling the heterogeneous yet powerful knot of devotion to race, nationalism, and deliberate myth-making, he seeks the forces that brought the peoples of the Balkans to the point of expelling or even killing their neighbors, with whom they once lived harmoniously. "Conflicts in the Balkans" presents the most important personalities and events that shaped this tormented landscape, from the conflict of the Serbian leader Lazar with the Ottomans in the 14th century, to the independence of Kosovo in February 2008.

Drawing material from years of research and travel to arrive at a definitive
conclusion about the history of the region, the author places the age-old feuds under the microscope, in the light of recent events, and raises provocative questions about the prospects of ending a cycle of bloodshed and dispensing justice, which seems endless.