Kosovo: A Short History

Like most Americans, i did not know much about the history of Kosovo and the surrounding areas. When the mass genocide of Albanians took place in the 1990's, i too became interested in learning the history behind the ethnic strife in this region of the world. One reviewer mentioned that Mr. Malcolm cashed in on the strife to sell his book. This may be true, but Mr. Malcolm posseses a deep understanding of the Balkans so as not to undermine the validity of the book or his authority in writing it. The book was well written and well researched. Only a person with a great deal of prior knowledge on this subject could undertake this project to educate readers on a subject matter that has been virtually ignored in the context of world history. i highly recommend this book. i particularly enjoyed Malcolm's profile of Tito's regime.

I have to admit, my Kosovar Albanian conscience sometimes got in the way when reading this book. This was due simply to the fact that the author (as he says himself in the preface) sought on to devalue all the myths about Kosova and tell its history based on facts and facts only, something that at times, viewing it subjectively, I did not like. However, when thinking rationally and reviewing the book objectively, one cannot help but emphasize the importance the author gives the authentication of his version of the history. The fact that every single theory or opinion expressed is backed with as many sources as there virtually exist is a strong enough reason to give this book its relevance it surely deserves.
Malcolm uncovers Kosova's history of all its myths and legends of all the sides involved with a detailed study of an over a thousand year spand of time of the area, leaving out only the truth as it is today based on the existing resources. This is a book for anyone truly interested in Kosova's history.

This really looks like the author's greed took the beter of him and he rushed to release something to sell while it was hot. Maybe his prior on Bosnia didn't face enough critique, maybe daily politics of the time made it look like paper can really suffer anything. Don't know. Seen from a bit of a time distance this looks like one of these summer season flicks released to collect some tenage money and never seen again.

Going over how many facts and evidence author choose to ignore since they didn't fit the story would only make sense if this would really be a work of historical science, but looks rather silly for something that was notnihg more then season's fashion -designed to sell while burning interest lasts.

Being an Albanian Kosovar my self I would say the book is suprisingly well writtin. Malcolm covers many aspects of Balkan and Albanian history without asuming, and gives relative information according to his statements. I would not say he is leniant to this or that side or he is full of propoganda, I would say this is the best read you will find on a region so unknown to the outside. The truth is a great percent of books on this are completely biased against Albanians in general. I consider this a "middle of the road" perspective and would definately reccomend it to anyone interesting in the region. Its funny I'm not even surprised at some of the reviews it has got and to the reply the stated the Serbian post WW2 census on Albanians in Kosova...sorry to kill your vision but I, and many more Shiqptar's can trace their ancestry down to the 14 century.

In his Kosovo; A Short History, Mr. Malcolm fails to explain how over 200 historic churches, monasteries and other holy sites dating back a thousand years happen to be in Kosovo. Are the Serbian claims to Kosovo any less than the claims of European Jews to Israel some 2000 years after they left? Serbian claims to Kosovo are much stronger than Croatian claims to Krajina. And how many states' territorial integrity would remain intact, if Noel Malcolm's one-sided quasi-historical research religious intolerance were applied elsewhere in the world?