Page:American Historical Review, Vol. 23.djvu/145

Rh (p. 334), the fact that Honos is the only masculine abstract divinity (p. 461), and the arrangement of imperial iconographic groups (p. 501).

the author meant to write a history of Serbia in the nineteenth century, he finally decided to cover the history of that country from its beginnings to 1914. He gives as his reasons that the "principles of strategy are eternal" and that geography has affected diplomacy in Serbia in a "strikingly similar way". He, therefore, emphasizes the geography of the home of the South Slavs and follows this admirable survey, based largely on Cvijić or Newbigin, by an account of the medieval Serbian states, borrowing heavily from Jireček, the best authority. Serbia is always the main thread of the story, although Montenegro, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Croatia, and Dalmatia are brought in to secure a better horizon. One chapter is devoted to Serbian medieval society, three to Turkish domination, two to the struggle for independence, four to the history of Serbia since 1815, and one, the last in the book, to the Macedonian question.

The author has not written a work essentially from primary sources, nor has he read material published in Serbian or other Slavic languages, but has produced a popular history based on secondary materials in the Western languages. He is interested in the political and geographical history of the Serbian people, not in their economic and social evolution. For this, Jireček's wonderful study of medieval Serbian society and the works of Janitch, Kessler, Jovanovitch, Nestorovitch, Krikner, and the publications of the Serbian government should have been used. Diplomatic history, which, in its details, would have illustrated the author's extensive geographical knowledge, has been inadequately handled, especially after 1875. In this period, the fundamental works of Ristitch, Rachitch, Peritch, and others are indispensable. Hence, the treatment of Serbia before the nineteenth century is the better part of the book.

In a very able manner, the author has pointed out how the geography of the Balkans has been an obstacle to South Slav unity and how modern inventions and educational forces are fast overcoming the greatest barriers after those of different religions and alphabets. But the effect of geographical obstacles should have been traced down into the time of railroad building.

The author is to be congratulated for his emphasis on the fact that "Serbia was not fully a nation before she became an empire" (p. 91),