Belgrade

by Florence Hamlish Levinsohn

The murderous war in Yugoslavia confounds the Western democracies and focuses the world's attention on the Serbs as children of darkness. "A valiant and warlike race," Churchill called the Serbs. Certainly their reputation for war has stuck. But for much of the world the Serbs are a mystery and a menace. Florence Levinsohn's Belgrade seriously and persuasively questions this reputation as well as the perception of Serbian guilt in the Balkan conflict. This stunning and clear-headed investigation by an accomplished independent journalist goes further than any other in explaining the war in Yugoslavia. Belgrade is also a vivid portrait of one of Europe's most intriguing cities - which since 1992 has been enduring a draconian United Nations embargo. Through a series of engrossing conversations with Serbian intellectuals in Belgrade, Serbia's capital, Ms. Levinsohn explores the causes of the war, the motives of its leading spirits, and the role of the Serbs as villains. She unpeels the man