Title: an enforcement of stereotypes
Product review: As a writer, Robert Kaplan rates five stars; as an analyst, zero. Balkan Ghosts enforces the West's belief that mass-murder in the Balkans is a tradition, and that this makes the groups there somehow unique in world history. This is a crock, and incredibly unfair to all sides. It is an increasingly common trend for writers to use the Balkans to flex hithero unseen intellectual muscle by quoting West, Reed, and the Mountain Wreath. Writers now do this to gloss over their lack of understanding of the region. Kaplan does this throughout, and he paints a picture of those in the Balkans as animals. Balkan Ghosts should not be included in any "shopping list" of scholarly works. Kaplan's other works are worthwhile, but this one is NOT.
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