One Morning In Sarajevo: 28 June 1914
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
Product Description
Review
'A fascinating piece of history that is exceptionally well told.' (HUDDERSFIELD DAILY EXAMINER )
'a fascinating and well-told tale' (GOOD BOOK GUIDE )
'a fascinating and well-told tale' (GOOD BOOK GUIDE )
James Ferguson, The Spectator
"this outstanding new account of events and characters... is the most comprehensive study of the assassination yet publishing in English"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
One Morning In Sarajevo is a painstakingly well-researched account of the assassination by Gavrilo Princip of Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austrian imperial throne. It is one of the very few individual moments in history that changed everything. Austria never recovered from the shot that Princip fired and the rise of Nazism and Communism in Europe were ushered along by the fallout that the World War I created while the 550 or so years since the fall of Constantinople of Turkish involvement in Europe came to a crashing end. Smith's account tells of the details behind the mostly young mostly Serb conspirators as they plotted their way towards Franz Ferdinand's killing, it shows who they were and the relationship they had to a dream of ending the oppression of the South Slavs. What the account most assuredly does not do is deliver this great message well and the first half of the book is remarkably difficult to get through. The time from the arrival of the Archduke in Bosnia to the descriptions of the jail conditions the conspirators ultimately faced is a more reasonable read.
That the book is so badly written is a real shame. A decent editor might have caught the challenging sentence construction that left many key facts essentially reading as lists while the attempt to popularise this history falls very short. Smith attempts to generate a present tense description of Princip and co as they go from generalised rage about the plight of Serbs for 500 years to a murder but the character motivations are not well expressed. Smith skips between tenses in the middle of sentences and breaks out of the narrative irregularly to pass academic comment on the assertions of others or to produce a weak analogy to 9/11. The academic discussions are sometimes fair even if they are often surrounding a piece of detail that does not really matter but occasionally they are excellent such as Smith's description of why the conspirators failed to commit suicide as intended. The modern analogies are clumsy and speak to an audience who probably will not be reading a history book.
Why it is a shame that the book is such a struggle is that Smith has a truly excellent message. The underlying assessment is that the young idealists represented an ethnicity that had been repressed for some 500 years, mostly by the Ottomans but latterly by the Austrians. The Serbs like many other nations in the 20th century finally fought back against their oppressors and created something for themselves. The demonising of the Serbian people in the last decade of the 20th century fails to understand the struggle that these people have faced for so many centuries. The last chapter of the book is an explicit and unnecessary description of this underlying message and was probably intended to round off the story but it is a very difficult art for an academic author to place themselves into the narrative without it distracting from the tale and Smith does not achieve this distinction.
The chain of events that Smith does put forward is fascinating and when not written like a list makes for an occasionally heart-rending account as the conspirators involve many people inadvertently and some of those who had no desire to become involved face extremely difficult ends. This is a side to the idealist that is never really seen - their great cause may or may not be achieved but so often those around the idealist must suffer the consequences. In Princip's case of course World War I breaks out though he nor his conspirators can be blamed for the German diversion into Belgium that triggered British involvement and guaranteed the deaths of many more millions.
On One Morning In Sarajevo the world changed. Smith puts the context of that change into place with his underlying messages and if the explicit descriptions of the people in that place had been delivered better this would have been a truly remarkable work. The depth of research is excellent and perhaps Smith might have been better served with producing a more academic work but as it is, the work adds an extra layer of understanding to those two shots that altered history.
That the book is so badly written is a real shame. A decent editor might have caught the challenging sentence construction that left many key facts essentially reading as lists while the attempt to popularise this history falls very short. Smith attempts to generate a present tense description of Princip and co as they go from generalised rage about the plight of Serbs for 500 years to a murder but the character motivations are not well expressed. Smith skips between tenses in the middle of sentences and breaks out of the narrative irregularly to pass academic comment on the assertions of others or to produce a weak analogy to 9/11. The academic discussions are sometimes fair even if they are often surrounding a piece of detail that does not really matter but occasionally they are excellent such as Smith's description of why the conspirators failed to commit suicide as intended. The modern analogies are clumsy and speak to an audience who probably will not be reading a history book.
Why it is a shame that the book is such a struggle is that Smith has a truly excellent message. The underlying assessment is that the young idealists represented an ethnicity that had been repressed for some 500 years, mostly by the Ottomans but latterly by the Austrians. The Serbs like many other nations in the 20th century finally fought back against their oppressors and created something for themselves. The demonising of the Serbian people in the last decade of the 20th century fails to understand the struggle that these people have faced for so many centuries. The last chapter of the book is an explicit and unnecessary description of this underlying message and was probably intended to round off the story but it is a very difficult art for an academic author to place themselves into the narrative without it distracting from the tale and Smith does not achieve this distinction.
The chain of events that Smith does put forward is fascinating and when not written like a list makes for an occasionally heart-rending account as the conspirators involve many people inadvertently and some of those who had no desire to become involved face extremely difficult ends. This is a side to the idealist that is never really seen - their great cause may or may not be achieved but so often those around the idealist must suffer the consequences. In Princip's case of course World War I breaks out though he nor his conspirators can be blamed for the German diversion into Belgium that triggered British involvement and guaranteed the deaths of many more millions.
On One Morning In Sarajevo the world changed. Smith puts the context of that change into place with his underlying messages and if the explicit descriptions of the people in that place had been delivered better this would have been a truly remarkable work. The depth of research is excellent and perhaps Smith might have been better served with producing a more academic work but as it is, the work adds an extra layer of understanding to those two shots that altered history.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Fascinating topic; deeply disappointing book
29 Dec 2008
Format:Hardcover
Seldom can such a vital character in world history as Gavrilo Princip have taken center stage for such a brief moment in time. His assassination of the heir to the Habsburg monarchy on June 28, 1914, was literally the shot heard round the world. Even Princip himself never imagined the consequences of his actions. The Serbian nationalist hoped, at best, to persuade the Austrian empire to leave the Balkans; instead, the assassination was the trigger for World War One, a global conflict that reshaped the world Princip lived in to the one in which we now exist. Princip himself didn't live to see that world -- narrowly escaping hanging along with three fellow conspirators because of his age, he died in prison of tuberculosis long before the guns finally fell silent in late 1918 and the world counted up the estimated 37 million civilian and military casualties.
Anyone trying to understand the course of 20th century history must, inevitably, come back to June 28, 1914; the first World War led directly to Communist dictatorships in Russia and later in Eastern Europe, to the rise of fascism and the Holocaust as well as the Cold War. Somehow, however, in the midst of all the books about "The Great War", the story of Princip and his fellow conspirators gets lost in that broader picture. Who was this 20-year-old student and who were his fellow conspirators -- a journeyman printer, teenage students, peasants and a "gentleman teacher"? David James Smith sets out to tell their collective story, leading up to and following that fateful day.
Alas... The book barely succeeds in giving the reader a coherent narrative. And it fails miserably in any effort to be compelling; indeed the writing is so stilted and awkward throughout the book that finishing it became a painful exercise for me. (I persisted simply because in more than three decades encountering the First World War -- I once worked as a tour guide at a battlefield in Northern France -- I had always wanted to know more about its roots, and this part of the story has been little told.)
I won't go into exhaustive detail of all the books stylistic flaws, instead just discuss a few of the most egregious. Smith seems unable to distinguish between relevant digressions (ones that serve to illustrate character and move the narrative forward) and those that just stop the reader dead in his tracks, scratching his head in bewilderment. For instance, Smith takes time out to wonder how many suits and shirts the conspirators possessed and concludes that "those Young Bosnians, some of them at least, were probably a little reeky." Later, he describes how one conspirator -- a peripheral character -- had met two young women at a dance and was corresponding with both of them at once. And so on... No fact, it seems is too trivial to be included.
This wouldn't have mattered quite as much, however, if the writing hadn't been among the worst I have ever encountered in such a book. I could only conclude, ultimately, that Smith ended up simply restating the transcripts of the trial. Over and over, Smith's sentences feel like no more than a simple recitation of facts -- exacerbated by the fact that they are often run-on and lead nowhere. A smuggler, for instance "knew that Milan would be keeping the brandy in the kitchen, so as not to flaunt it in front of the sergeant, so he went into the kitchen and asked Milan to pour him a glass and then hid it behind his hand as he took a swig." (phew, time to take a deep breath.) There are so many stylistic flaws in the writing -- such as the use of the passive voice without any reason as in "they would be commonly called "kmets" or peasants" -- that at one point I stopped to look up the author to ensure that (a) this wasn't a bad translation of a book and (b) that his native language is English.
Overall, in fact, the writing and structure was so problematic that I can't even continue to address it. My disappointment was acute because, buried somewhere in all that clumsy verbiage, is a great story and Smith clearly has all his facts and theories assembled. He just can't put them together in one coherent whole. From a structural standpoint, the greatest disservice to the reader is probably the way the narrative darts back and forth in time and location, making it harder to follow what to many will be unfamiliar events and characters. For instance, Smith never presents us with an overall chronology of recent Balkan history, including summaries of the two Balkan wars. Rather, he refers to this in passing, and it's only after several references that the reader will finally understand who was fighting, why and what the outcome was. (A historical book shouldn't send an interested reader to Wikipedia in search of clarity!) There was also an egregious historical error; Smith claims that Franz Ferdinand became heir to the Austrian throne because the emperor's two children had died -- one a daughter who died young and his son by suicide decades later. In fact, Franz Josef had two daughters and numerous grandchildren alive and well in 1914 -- but women were debarred from the succession.
This book did convince me that there is a great story to be told about this group of naive and often-clumsy conspirators and their quixotic plan that succeeded almost in spite of the conspirators themselves. (One threw a bomb that missed the Archduke's car; Princip only succeeded later because of an error made by the chauffeur.) Alas, while all the ingredients for that story may be assembled in this book, the overwhelming flaws in structure and style mean this isn't it.
Anyone trying to understand the course of 20th century history must, inevitably, come back to June 28, 1914; the first World War led directly to Communist dictatorships in Russia and later in Eastern Europe, to the rise of fascism and the Holocaust as well as the Cold War. Somehow, however, in the midst of all the books about "The Great War", the story of Princip and his fellow conspirators gets lost in that broader picture. Who was this 20-year-old student and who were his fellow conspirators -- a journeyman printer, teenage students, peasants and a "gentleman teacher"? David James Smith sets out to tell their collective story, leading up to and following that fateful day.
Alas... The book barely succeeds in giving the reader a coherent narrative. And it fails miserably in any effort to be compelling; indeed the writing is so stilted and awkward throughout the book that finishing it became a painful exercise for me. (I persisted simply because in more than three decades encountering the First World War -- I once worked as a tour guide at a battlefield in Northern France -- I had always wanted to know more about its roots, and this part of the story has been little told.)
I won't go into exhaustive detail of all the books stylistic flaws, instead just discuss a few of the most egregious. Smith seems unable to distinguish between relevant digressions (ones that serve to illustrate character and move the narrative forward) and those that just stop the reader dead in his tracks, scratching his head in bewilderment. For instance, Smith takes time out to wonder how many suits and shirts the conspirators possessed and concludes that "those Young Bosnians, some of them at least, were probably a little reeky." Later, he describes how one conspirator -- a peripheral character -- had met two young women at a dance and was corresponding with both of them at once. And so on... No fact, it seems is too trivial to be included.
This wouldn't have mattered quite as much, however, if the writing hadn't been among the worst I have ever encountered in such a book. I could only conclude, ultimately, that Smith ended up simply restating the transcripts of the trial. Over and over, Smith's sentences feel like no more than a simple recitation of facts -- exacerbated by the fact that they are often run-on and lead nowhere. A smuggler, for instance "knew that Milan would be keeping the brandy in the kitchen, so as not to flaunt it in front of the sergeant, so he went into the kitchen and asked Milan to pour him a glass and then hid it behind his hand as he took a swig." (phew, time to take a deep breath.) There are so many stylistic flaws in the writing -- such as the use of the passive voice without any reason as in "they would be commonly called "kmets" or peasants" -- that at one point I stopped to look up the author to ensure that (a) this wasn't a bad translation of a book and (b) that his native language is English.
Overall, in fact, the writing and structure was so problematic that I can't even continue to address it. My disappointment was acute because, buried somewhere in all that clumsy verbiage, is a great story and Smith clearly has all his facts and theories assembled. He just can't put them together in one coherent whole. From a structural standpoint, the greatest disservice to the reader is probably the way the narrative darts back and forth in time and location, making it harder to follow what to many will be unfamiliar events and characters. For instance, Smith never presents us with an overall chronology of recent Balkan history, including summaries of the two Balkan wars. Rather, he refers to this in passing, and it's only after several references that the reader will finally understand who was fighting, why and what the outcome was. (A historical book shouldn't send an interested reader to Wikipedia in search of clarity!) There was also an egregious historical error; Smith claims that Franz Ferdinand became heir to the Austrian throne because the emperor's two children had died -- one a daughter who died young and his son by suicide decades later. In fact, Franz Josef had two daughters and numerous grandchildren alive and well in 1914 -- but women were debarred from the succession.
This book did convince me that there is a great story to be told about this group of naive and often-clumsy conspirators and their quixotic plan that succeeded almost in spite of the conspirators themselves. (One threw a bomb that missed the Archduke's car; Princip only succeeded later because of an error made by the chauffeur.) Alas, while all the ingredients for that story may be assembled in this book, the overwhelming flaws in structure and style mean this isn't it.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Very highly recommended despite ...
3 April 2011
Format:Paperback
Books don't get any more relevant than this, the story of the most disastrous act of terrorism ever, even worse in its consequences than 9/11. I disagree with the review that says the writing is substandard. I suspect that reviewer maybe had a tough time keeping track of the seemingly endless slew of gibberish-sounding Serbian names. I do believe the author could have done more to keep those from being so overwhelming. The two most prominent characters in the story were named Gavrilo Princip and Trifko Grabez. In Smith's narrative they go by the first name of Princip and yet the last name of Grabez, which look somewhat similar. Oy!
One problem with the book is that Smith goes overboard to paint the assassins sympathetically as well-intentioned and public-spirited youths, and paints an unduly dark picture (what there is of it) of the victims, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife. But at the same time, the very detailed human portrait of the assassins is arguably what makes this book so eminently worthwhile.
In general, the book falls a little short on putting this dreadful event into context. The loose band of young Bosnian Serbs who perpetrated the crime (not that Smith very much portrays it as a crime) were inspired by unfortunate excesses of both nationalist and socialist zeal. One of the last survivors of the group, the book does mention, went on to famously advocate a policy of ethnic cleansing (of the Albanians who were slowly taking over Kosovo). The assassins were also following in the footsteps of the left-anarchist terrorist phenomenon that convulsed anoter slavic nation, Russia, for several decades near the end of the 19th century: the People's Will (Narodnaya Volya). Smith mentions repeatedly that the assassins had connections to a Serbian org called Narodnaya Odbrana, which he translates as "National Defence", but he never makes any connection between Princip's deed and the many similar acts of Narodnaya Volya.
Nonetheless, I highly recommend this as a well written book that provides a fresh and detailed perspective on an extremely important and hitherto under-reported event.
One problem with the book is that Smith goes overboard to paint the assassins sympathetically as well-intentioned and public-spirited youths, and paints an unduly dark picture (what there is of it) of the victims, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife. But at the same time, the very detailed human portrait of the assassins is arguably what makes this book so eminently worthwhile.
In general, the book falls a little short on putting this dreadful event into context. The loose band of young Bosnian Serbs who perpetrated the crime (not that Smith very much portrays it as a crime) were inspired by unfortunate excesses of both nationalist and socialist zeal. One of the last survivors of the group, the book does mention, went on to famously advocate a policy of ethnic cleansing (of the Albanians who were slowly taking over Kosovo). The assassins were also following in the footsteps of the left-anarchist terrorist phenomenon that convulsed anoter slavic nation, Russia, for several decades near the end of the 19th century: the People's Will (Narodnaya Volya). Smith mentions repeatedly that the assassins had connections to a Serbian org called Narodnaya Odbrana, which he translates as "National Defence", but he never makes any connection between Princip's deed and the many similar acts of Narodnaya Volya.
Nonetheless, I highly recommend this as a well written book that provides a fresh and detailed perspective on an extremely important and hitherto under-reported event.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Absolutely Beautiful, and Humbling
27 Mar 2010
Format:Paperback
I completely disagree with the individual who has labelled this as a "deeply disappointing book". He seems more interested in so called "stylistic flaws", and sees "problematic" structures, etc. But then, I guess to each his own.
Thank you for this wonderful book James. I can only imagine how much hard work and effort you must have put into gathering all these bits and pieces of information which happened lifetimes ago.
I'm an avid reader. And in my life, I've never been so emotionally drained. The exchange of letters between Vjelko and his wife, brought tears. It put a voice and face to the whole episode.
I recommend this book to everyone who's ever been interested in that era.
I thank you for sharing this wonderful gem of a book. It sadly shows that no matter the sacrifices, humanity has yet to find its soul, if it even exists at all ...
Thank you for this wonderful book James. I can only imagine how much hard work and effort you must have put into gathering all these bits and pieces of information which happened lifetimes ago.
I'm an avid reader. And in my life, I've never been so emotionally drained. The exchange of letters between Vjelko and his wife, brought tears. It put a voice and face to the whole episode.
I recommend this book to everyone who's ever been interested in that era.
I thank you for sharing this wonderful gem of a book. It sadly shows that no matter the sacrifices, humanity has yet to find its soul, if it even exists at all ...
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
