Research Catalog

The bridge betrayed : religion and genocide in Bosnia

Title: The bridge betrayed : religion and genocide in Bosnia / Michael A. Sells.
Author: Sells, Michael Anthony.
Publication: Berkeley : University of California Press, ©1996.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Book/Text	Use in library	DR1313.7.A85 S45 1996	Off-site

Details

Description

xv, 244 pages : illustrations, maps; 22 cm.

Summary

In this passionate yet carefully documented book, Sells draws on Balkan literature, unpublished United Nations reports, Internet postings, and personal contacts in the region to reveal for the first time the central role played by religious mythology and stereotyping in the Bosnian tragedy. Sells, himself of Serbian American descent, traces the cultural logic of genocide to the manipulation by contemporary nationalists of the ancient battle of Kosovo - in which the fallen Serb prince Lazar is viewed as a Christ figure and Muslims are portrayed as "Christ-Killers" who must be exterminated before the crucified Serb nation can be resurrected. He shows how intellectuals and clergy created a "Christoslavic" nationalism that viewed converts to Islam as traitors to the Slavic race and marked out their descendants for destruction.
Sells also reveals how Western policy makers rewarded the perpetrators of the genocide and punished the victims. He concludes by explaining how the multireligious society of Bosnia served as a bridge between Christendom and Islam, symbolized by the now-destroyed ancient bridge at Mostar. In addition, he makes clear what is at stake, in the effort to preserve Bosnia, for the entire post-cold war world and especially for multireligious societies such as our own.

Series Statement

Comparative studies in religion and society ; 11

Uniform Title

Comparative studies in religion and society ; 11.

Subject

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 157-215) and index.

Contents

1. Fire in the pages. -- 2. Christ killers. -- 3. Performing the Passion. -- 4. Masks of otherness. -- 5. The Virgin and the Jewel of Herzegovina. -- 6. Masks of complicity. -- 7. The bridge.

ISBN

0520206908
9780520206908
0585130272
9780585130279
0520216628
9780520216624

LCCN

96004854

OCLC

ocm34322861
34322861
SCSB-2098968

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library