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The Formation of Croation National Identity: A Centuries-Old Dream? by Alex J. Bellamy Review by: James Gow The Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 83, No. 3 (Jul., 2005), pp. 557-558 Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School of Slavonic and East European Studies Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4214160 . Accessed: 15/06/2014 13:00 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School of Slavonic and East European Studies are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Slavonic and East European Review. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 13:00:24 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

The Formation of Croation National Identity: A Centuries-Old Dream?by Alex J. Bellamy

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Page 1: The Formation of Croation National Identity: A Centuries-Old Dream?by Alex J. Bellamy

The Formation of Croation National Identity: A Centuries-Old Dream? by Alex J. BellamyReview by: James GowThe Slavonic and East European Review, Vol. 83, No. 3 (Jul., 2005), pp. 557-558Published by: the Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School ofSlavonic and East European StudiesStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4214160 .

Accessed: 15/06/2014 13:00

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Modern Humanities Research Association and University College London, School of Slavonic and EastEuropean Studies are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Slavonic andEast European Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.229.177 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 13:00:24 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

Page 2: The Formation of Croation National Identity: A Centuries-Old Dream?by Alex J. Bellamy

REVIEWS 557

differences between the two nationalist regimes are also left unexplored. Arguably, despite its terrible record of ethnic cleansing, Milo'sevic's regime was less ideologically ethnocentric than its Croatian counterpart, both on account of its orthodox Communist prejudices and its appeals to the latent pro-Yugoslav (not only Serbian) sentiments of key constituencies (e.g. army officers). The difference in the fates of the respective ruling parties is telling: while Milosevic's Socialists are on the margins of Serbian political life, Tudjman's HDZ is in power (although in a very different edition). Finally, relating the changes in ideological appeals to the developmental phases of regime development (along the lines suggested by Ken Jowitt) would have added much to the book. Despite these weaknesses, Malesevic has written a readable and good book which offers a good starting point for the comparative and empirical study of ideologies.

Department of Sociology V. VUJACIC

Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH

Bellamy, Alex J. 7he Formation of Croatian National Identity: A Centuries-Old Dream? Europe in Change. Manchester University Press, Manchester and New York, 2003. X + 2 I I pp. Notes. Bibliography. Index. C45.??.

ALEX BELLAMY has followed his important book on the international aspects of the I999 Kosovo events with this strong contribution on nationalism in Croatia. Developed from his PhD work, the book combines theoretical treatment of nationalism with empirical investigation of the Croatian case. As such, the new volume makes a contribution in both areas. The work on nationalism identifies what Bellamy continually refers to as a 'great divide', although the division identified between the work of Gellner and Smith is far less sharp than that of Gellner and Kedourie. In this sense and the additional sense of perhaps not addressing the literature on nationalism more comprehensively - the book does not make a major contribution to the study of national identity and ethnicity. Indeed, no mention of George Schopflin in the context is quite peculiar on my reading, given that his treatment of the triangulation of ethnicity, civic society and the state would have added much to this analysis. So too would a stronger appreciation of the work of John Breuilly which, although cited, does not seem fully to be engaged. This is because the strong empirical examination of Croatian nationalism in the I990S would have made more sense if the perspectives of those authors had been introduced more clearly into the equation. On the one hand, Schopflin's interactive model is confirmed by Bellamy's work. On the other, reference to Breuilly would have foreshadowed the conclusion that Bellamy draws regarding the Croatian nationalist project under Franjo Tudjman this is that, according to Breuilly, nationalism is a political force related to the mobilization of political support with reference to some aspect of statehood. Once the goals identified in the mobilization are achieved or cease to be significant, the nationalist movement will lose force and dissipate. This, as Bellamy notes, is what happened in Croatia. He correctly identifies the greater complexity in social and political life that exists not only in the Croatian case,

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Page 3: The Formation of Croation National Identity: A Centuries-Old Dream?by Alex J. Bellamy

558 SEER, 83, 3, 2005

but in all cases where nationalism arises. He argues that the Croatian nationalism of the I990S - what he calls 'Franjoism' - was a mobilization force that brought together different parts of Croatian society in support of Croatia's independence and, later, territorial integrity. However, once those goals were largely achieved, the aggregating effect of 'Franjoism' gave way to growing differences. These different elements were always present, as the author points out. By focusing on five different areas of social practice in the empirical heartland of the book chapters five and six Bellamy shows how initial, or apparent, homogeneity disguised 'disputes about the meaning of Croatian national identity' (p. 104). The six areas he selects are the economy, football, the region of Istria, language, education and the Roman Catholic Church. These cases are the third level of analytical abstraction in his study, building on discussion of frames and competing conceptions of national identity. The six areas represent social practice, where discourse on national identity blends with other concerns, such as the transnational character of the Roman Catholic Church (although Bellamy wrongly calls this 'multinational'), or the traditional identity of football clubs, to create a political environment that can both bolster nationalism, or serve to challenge and undermine it. In the end, the real benefit of Bellamy's book is that it shows through close examination how this was the case in Croatia.

King's College London JAMES Gow

Plokhy, Serhii and Sysyn, Frank E. Religion and Nation in Modern Ukraine. Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, Edmonton and Toronto, 2003. XVi + 2I6 pp. Notes. Index. $27.95 (paperback).

THIS collection of eleven essays ten of them previously published is proof that the authors' scholarship has stood the test of time well. Serhy Plokhy and Frank E. Sysyn, both of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies in Edmonton, are known as North America's leading experts on Ukraine's religious history, and the breadth of their erudition displayed in this volume fully supports their reputation. The ten previously published papers originally appeared in print between I983 and I999, but all have been thoroughly updated, and thus provide the reader with an up-to-date guide to the history of Eastern Christianity in the Ukrainian lands.

A helpful new Introduction is followed by Sysyn's two chapters on the formation of modern Ukrainian religious tradition during the early modern period. Focusing on the Orthodox religion, he argues that, in addition to seeing the church as a national institution, the Ukrainian tradition as it developed during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries included active participation by the laity and the election of church officials by councils. Attempts during the twentieth century to establish a Ukrainian church separate from the dominant Russian Orthodox Church inevitably were framed as a return to the spirit of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. Plokhy picks up this story in his chapter on the establishment of the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada in I9I8-I9, for this was another attempt to create a national church institution for Ukrainians. The two chapters that follow

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