The Macedonian Slavs in the Greek Civil War, 19441949

(Hardback)

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In this study of Macedonian Slavs in the Greek Civil War, the author examines how their participation in the conflict, and the attempts by other groups to manipulate them, gave rise to modern issues that continue to affect politics in the region today. The Macedonian Question has confounded academics, politicians and the people of the Balkans since the nineteenth century. While the countries have resolved the territorial component of the Macedonian Question, the critical and confusing question surrounding the ethnic and linguistic identity of the people of the region continues to be the source of international debate. Part of the reason for this confusion is because the history of the Macedonian Question is shrouded in nationalist polemics. The role of the Macedonian Slavs involvement in the Greek Civil War is particularly contentious and embedded in nationalist polemics, which has impacted academic inquiry. This book argues that the preponderance of Macedonian Slavs within the communist forces during the Greek Civil War influenced the actions of all the major actors involved, and is a significant factor in shaping the modern Macedonian national identity.

Reviews

Balkan history has been a laboratory for cottage industries of scholarly work on geopolitics, empire, ethnic conflict, and civil war. Dr. Horncastles book stands apart from this division of labor. His argument is a vibrant interjection into a rather stale collection of approaches that focus on specific elements of Balkan politics and war. The book deftly weaves together geopolitics, power-laden attempts at nation-building, and cultural considerations into a study of war that construes its subject as not simply determined by one level of analysis, but instead as a complex outcome of processes that crosscut them. Its an important book for scholars of international relations and new military history alike, specifically because it is so well suited to starting a conversation across the divide that now marks them. -- Jack MacLennan, Park University
The Greek Civil War never fails to surprise, and neither does the research on the subject. This 1940s war that, up to the late 1980s, hardly caught the eyes of researchers now enjoys thorough and deep academic research, covering many of the gaps and changes in our knowledge of one of the most vicious and bloody civil wars waged in the 20th Century. James Horncastles The Macedonian Slavs in the Greek Civil War, 19441949 does exactly this. His book changes our perceptions about the role of the Slavo-Macedonians in the Greek Civil War. This is a solid, balanced, and widely documented work that uses new sources, archives, and repositories only recently subject to public inspection. For the foreseeable future, Horncastles findings and analyses will remain the standard version on a subject that has been highly controversial, heavily disputed, and detrimentally impactful to Balkan realities. -- Amikam Nachmani, Bar-Ilan University

Author Bio

James Horncastle is lecturer at Simon Fraser University.