Customer Reviews (3)

The Balkans
Bosnia and Heregovina is a very interesting country to learn about for several reasons.

Religion wise in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Islam acounts for (40-44%), and Orthodox and Catholic Christianity acounts for (46-50%).

Population wise in Bosnia and Herzegovina: Bosniaks (Muslim) number about 40%, while the rest of the population is Serbs (Orthodox) and Croats (Catholic).

Bosnia and Herzegovina
Given the fact that the author of this book also wrote the brutally terrible book on Serbia and Montenegro, there is a difference of night and day between his two endeavors.The book on Bosnia is brutally honest in giving the history of the region including the ethnic cleansing of the 1990s and the events surrounding pre-World War I Austria-Hungary of which Bosnia was a part.This book takes an honest look at those dark days and informs the reader that all was not well in this troubled land of the celebrated 1984 Winter Olympics.

In fact, the coziness of those Olympics is in stark contrast to the realities of civil war that broke out just eight years later.Those scars still remain and will likely be present forever.This is a land where history is never forgotten.

The book also talks about the economy and life in Sarajevo and other cities.It puts the communist past into perspective and gives a down to earth portrayal of the country.Though this book is but a very brief introduction to an extremely complex society, it is worth a look if your gradeshooler needsinformation for a social studies class project.

A Lot I Did Not Know
I found this book fascinating.It was part of Yugoslavia when I was growing up and in school.The only thing I really knew about was the war.It was great to read something that covered so much about the culture and history of this country.I sponsor a woman in starting a business in Bosnia and Herzegovina through Women for Women International and wanted to know more about her culture and whatnot.This book was great.Lots of info but did not read like a boring history text at all.I am now going to seek out other books in this series and learn more about other cultures I know little about. ... Read more

Product Description
Culture Smart! provides essential information on attitudes, beliefs and behavior in different countries, ensuring that you arrive at your destination aware of basic manners, common courtesies, and sensitive issues. These concise guides tell you what to expect, how to behave, and how to establish a rapport with your hosts. This inside knowledge will enable you to steer clear of embarrassing gaffes and mistakes, feel confident in unfamiliar situations, and develop trust, friendships, and successful business relationships.

Culture Smart! offers illuminating insights into the culture and society of a particular country. It will help you to turn your visit-whether on business or for pleasure-into a memorable and enriching experience. Contents include:

* customs, values, and traditions
* historical, religious, and political background
* life at home
* leisure, social, and cultural life
* eating and drinking
* dos, don'ts, and taboos
* business practices
* communication, spoken and unspoken

"Culture Smart has come to the rescue of hapless travellers." Sunday Times Travel

"... the perfect introduction to the weird, wonderful and downright odd quirks and customs of various countries." Global Travel

"...full of fascinating-as well as common-sense-tips to help you avoid embarrassing faux pas." Observer

"...as useful as they are entertaining." Easyjet Magazine

"...offer glimpses into the psyche of a faraway world." New York Times ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Moving Bosnia Forward!
This superb small book is very well written and designed for those who hope to move forward, beyond war and terror, but without forgetting. The author is embedded in the culture with a keen eye for detail.She has surfaced the most critical issues and described them succinctly. A great find. ... Read more

Product Description
In this book family life in wartorn Sarajevo is described through the eyes of the Bucalovic family who lived in a home threatened by bullets daily. It explains how they kept warm when they couldn't find any firewood for the stove and how they risked their lives just to get fresh water. This book is one of a series which uses a photo of the family outside their home with their possesions spread out for inspection. Short quotes from family members bring the personalities to life. Simple fact boxes at the start of each chapter give easy-to-grasp general information about various aspects of daily life in each country. The subject matter is suitable for National Curriculum Key Stage 1. ... Read more

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Chapters: Coat of Arms of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Flag of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Flag of Herzeg-Bosnia, Ars Aevi, Festival Prijateljstva. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 20. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The coat of arms of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina was adopted on November 5, 1996. The green background and the golden fleur-de-lis represented the Bosniaks, while the chequy shield represented the Bosnian Croats. The ten stars arranged in a circle represented the 10 cantons of the Federation, even though there was a great resemblance to the flag of the European Union. The Federation entity is part of the state of Bosnia and Herzegovina which had its own coat of arms, while the other entity Republika Srpska also had its coat of arms. On 12 April 2004, Sulejman Tihi, then Chairman of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, filed a request with the Constitutional Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina for the review of constitutionality of Articles 1 and 2 of the Law on the Coat of Arms and Flag of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (Official Gazette of Federation of BiH No. 21/96 and 26/96), Articles 1, 2 and 3 of the Constitutional Law on the Flag, Coat of Arms and Anthem of the Republika Srpska (Official Gazette of the Republika Srpska No. 19/92), Articles 2 and 3 of the Law on the Use of Flag, Coat of Arms and Anthem (Official Gazette of the Republika Srpska No. 4/93) and Articles 1 and 2 of the Law on the Family Patron-Saints Days and Church Holidays of the Republika Srpska (Official Gazette of Republika Srpska No. 19/92). On 2 December 2004 the applicant submitted a supplement to the request. Two partial decisions were made in a year 2006, when the Court found that the coat of arms and flag of the Federation of B ... Read more

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Chapters: Art Museums and Galleries in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Culture of Sarajevo, National Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ars Aevi, Museum of Modern Art of Republika Srpska. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 18. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Sarajevos culture is represented in various ways. Numerous cultural festivals occur every year, such as the Baarija Nights, Sarajevo Winter Festival, and the Sarajevo Jazz Festival. Numerous theatres are present in Sarajevo as well, such as the National Theatre of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The first ever Bosnian opera was held in Sarajevo in 2003. Historically, Sarajevo was home to several famous Bosnian poets and thinkers during the times of the Ottoman Empire. Nobel Prize winners Ivo Andri and Vladimir Prelog are from the city, as was academy award winning director Danis Tanovi. Sarajevo is also home to the Sarajevo Haggadah, one of the oldest surviving such texts, originating from the 14th century and brought by Jews fleeing the Spanish inquisition. As of late, modern art has flourished in the city as well. Sarajevo is home to a number of cultural institutions, dedicated to upkeeping the city's culture. The notable Bosniak institute is housed in an impressive building in central Sarajevo, and features various interesting exhibits dealing with the city's and country's culture and history. Also notable are the International Center for Kids and Youth in New Sarajevo, and the Center for Sarajevo Culture. Theatres are also an important part of Sarajevo culture. The first great Sarajevo theatre was the national theatre of Bosnia and Herzegovina, built in 1919 and surviving to this day. Prior to that, plays were often held in parks or at the large houses of wealthy families. The first Bosnian opera was held in Sarajevo in 2003. Sarajevo also ...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=1118623 ... Read more

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Chapters: Art of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 93. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: The Art of Bosnia and Herzegovina is art production from the region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and their nationalities (Bosniaks, Serbs and Croats) from prehistory to today. "Horse attacked by arrows", engraving in cave Badanj near Stolac, c. 14000 BC.In the boundaries of todays Bosnia and Herzegovina there have been many layers of prehistory cultures and their creation and disappearance is linked to migrations of unidentified ethnic groups. Paleolithic in B ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Countries and Their Cultures, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 2493 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Covers the broad range of popular religious culture of the United States at the close of the twentieth century. Beliefs, practices, symbols, traditions, movements, organizations, and leaders from the many traditions in the pluralistic American community are represented. Also includes cults and phenomena that drew followers, such as Heaven's Gale and UFOs. ... Read more

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Purchase includes free access to book updates online and a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Desilo is a small valley in Bosnia-Hercegovina, near the Croatian border. Archaeological investigations in a small lake there in 2007 led to interesting finds of Illyrian boats. Desilo is situated near the Neretva river, and was in antiquity probably connected with it via Lake Hutovo Blato. References to Neretva can been traced as far back as ancient times. In the era of ancient Bosnia and Herzegovina, Neretva was known as Narenta, Narona and Naro(n) , and was home to the ancient Illyrian tribe of Ardiaei and Daorsi. Neretva provided them life, turned them into town builders, ship makers, seafarers and fishermen that were renowned in ancient times. In the spring of 2007, Professor Snjezana Vasilj PhD of the University of Mostar excavated 2 Illyrian boats in Desilo, covered with stone-blocks and fragments of Roman wine amphorae. After intense excavations in the area of Hutovo Blato in the autumn of 2008, archaeologists from University of Oslo, Norway together with Dr. Vasilj found the very first traces of an Illyrian trading post from at least the 2nd-1st centuries BC . The find is unique in a European perspective and the archaeologists have concluded that Desilo was an important trading post of great significance for contact between the Illyrians and the Romans. Surprisingly large finds have been made in a short period of time. The archaeologists have discovered the ruins of a settlement, the remains of a harbour that probably functioned as a trading post, as well as many sunken boats, covered with fragments of wine pitchers so-called amphorae from the 1st century B.C. The archaeologist Adam Lindhagen, who has a PhD from the University of Lund and has specialised in Roman wine amphorae, says that this is the most important find of all time ... More: http://booksllc.net/?id=22022549 ... Read more

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Chapters: Susa, Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Byblos, Sirmium, Dimini, Merimde Culture, Monte Viso. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 54. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Visoko, Bosnia and Herzegovina -Visoko from Visoica hillThe Visoko municipality covers 232 square kilometres with several characteristic, morphologically distinctive valleys formed by the foothills of the Central Bosnian mountains including Ozren, Vranica and Zvijezda. The altitude of the region ranges from 400 1,050 metres. Visoko's natural environment is defined by the river-valleys of the Bosna and Fojnica rivers. The municipality borders the towns of Kiseljak, Busovaa, Kakanj, Vare, Breza, Ilija and Ilida, and is connected by rail to the Adriatic coast. It is also on the SarajevoZenica magistral road to the north. Currently, the town has a population estimated at 17,000 residents, with municipality numbering 40,276 residents, of which there are 96% Bosniaks, 2% Serbs, 1% Croats and 1% other. With 173 residents per square kilometer it is one of the most densely populated areas in Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Visoko region shows evidence of long continuous occupation, with the first traces of life dating back to 4000 BC. Because there are two rivers that go through Visoko, the Bosna and Fojnica, the area of Visoko was always inhabited. In the Neolithic period, the area of Central Bosnia played an important role as a mediator between the settlements of Adriatic Coast and the central Balkans. These metropolitan areas were connected by Neretva and Bosna rivers. Since Visoko was situated on the Bosna River, it has gained a lot of economic traffic between the two larger cities. Neolithic emplacements were founded on the shores of the rivers in places known today as Arnautovii, Donje Motre, Okolite, Zb...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=853996 ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from East European Quarterly, published by Thomson Gale on June 22, 2007. The length of the article is 7233 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Plagiarism between Orientalism and Balkanism: Anthony Rhodes and Bosnia.
Author: Omer Hadziselimovic
Publication: East European Quarterly (Magazine/Journal)
Date: June 22, 2007
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 41Issue: 2Page: 149(18)

Distributed by Thomson Gale ... Read more

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From the master chronicler of the marvelous and the confounding–author of Mr. Wilson’s Cabinet of Wonder–here is a much-anticipated new collection of more than twenty pieces from the past two decades, the majority of which have never before been gathered together in book form.

Lawrence Weschler is not simply a superb reporter, essayist, and cultural observer; he is also an uncanny collector and connector of wonders. In Vermeer in Bosnia, whether he is reporting on the aftermath of the Yugoslav wars (and noticing, for example, how centuries earlier Vermeer had had to invent the peace and serenity we so prize in his work today from a youth during which all of Europe had been as ravaged as Bosnia) or dissecting the special quality of light in his beloved hometown of Los Angeles, Weschler’s perceptions are often startling, his insights both fresh and profound.

Included here is Weschler’s remarkable profile of Roman Polanski–written years before the release of The Pianist, yet all but predicting the director’s confrontation with the Holocaust in that film–alongside an equally celebrated portrait of Ed Weinberger, a young designer crushed and yet hardly bowed by an extreme form of Parkinson’s disease. Here is Weschler limning his own experience as the grandson of an eminent Weimar-era composer, and then as the befuddled father of an eminently fetching daughter. Here is Weschler on Art Spiegelman, David Hockney, Ed Kienholz, and Wislawa Szymborska.

Here, in short, are some of the most dazzling pieces from Lawrence Weschler’s own brimming cabinet of marvels. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

A Serious Man Who's Good Company
Three of the Wechsler books I own were bought at the beginning ofbus trips from South Station, Boston, so to me the New Yorker writer is more of a Hub hero than Johnny Damon or Joe Perry. If you can't make it to Barbara's Books, you won't go wrong online with this, but you might consider one of his slimmer volumes (Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder for the art, A Miracle A Universe for the justice) as anintroduction to this worthycompilation.

Wise, Enthralling, Insightful
In this collection of his essays, written over the past two decades, Lawrence Weschler reports on the summits and troughs of human endeavor.He's often wise, sometimes enthralling, and always insightful.

The opening essay, "Vermeer in Bosnia," is worth the price of the book by itself.The setting is The Hague during the Yugoslavian War Crimes tribunal.He contrasts horrifying testimony about war criminals with the career of the famous Dutch artist Jan Vermeer, whose paintings are on display in a nearby museum.Weschler shows us that Vermeer's greatest achievement was to imagine a world of stillness and serenity at a time when all of Europe was being torn apart by national hatreds and religious persecution, and then to will that world into existence through his art.Those magnificent paintings are more than technical triumphs; they are triumphs of the human spirit.The distance between Vermeer and the murderers, rapists and torturers on trial is heartbreaking.Weschler makes us see Vermeer in a new light, and makes us feel in a new way the unique burdens of being human.

The second essay in this section uses Shakespeare's Henry V to shed light on the Serbian massacre of thousands of Muslims at Srebrenica.The final essay, "Aristotle in Belgrade" reports on Serbian students using the great philosopher as a propaganda weapon against the state police. Unlike Aristotle, though, these students and the rest of the Serbian citizenry abandoned moral discrimination and particularity in favor of dogma and propaganda.Thinking in slogans led to a collective madness that drove the Serbs to commit unspeakable atrocities and then refuse to take responsibility for their actions.Given the current situation in the Middle East, these essays are timely warnings as well as valuable historical records.

Three Polish Survivor Stories, include portraits of film director Roman Polanski, graphic novelist Art Speigelman, and publisher Jerzy Urban.The Polanski essay is fascinating for its psychological portrait of a man who survives by simultaneously mining and jettisoning his past.The most intriguing essay is about Urban, a Jewish boy who survived anti-Semitic persecution to become a young anti-government radical, and, as an older man, a much-reviled government spokesperson for the regime of General Jarulzelski.After that regime collapsed, Urban transformed yet again, this time into a highly successful purveyor of tabloid smut.A cynical, unassimilated survivor through all of it, Urban comes across as both victim and brilliant manipulator of Poland's tortuous postwar politics.

The Grandfathers and Daughters section contains six pieces that include Weschler's daughter as well as his grandfather, the composer Ernst Toch.Unlike the big screen portrayals in the rest of the book, the writing here has the narrower appeal of home movies: some heartwarming moments, but more meaningful to the family than the rest of us.

The most captivating of the Three LA Pieces is "The Light of LA," which is a paean to its clarity and consistency and, paradoxically, its enfolding softness.By interviewing artists, cinematographers, climatologists and astronomers, Weschler lovingly deconstructs the interpenetration of light and air that occurs in LA, a place where the desert, the ocean and tons of industrial particulate matter all meet.The other two pieces are a nostalgic ride with the artist Robert Irwin through LA in the Forties, and a first person account of the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

The final section, Three Portraits of Artists, contains two beautifully made works of narrative art."True to Life: David Hockney's Photocollages," begins with Hockney picking up a point and shoot Polaroid camera to make some quick collages.What starts as an attempt to introduce a temporal dimension to still photography evolves into a deep exploration of the nature of perception.Hockney's historical guidepost is the cubist way of seeing pioneered by Picasso and Braque.The Cubists realized thatfragmenting an image forced a viewer to take more time to truly see it.Hockney progresses from fragmenting a photographic image to removing the fixed edges of the rectangular photos "because there are no edges to seeing."Next, he places himself in the pictures because seeing also involves where the viewer is in relation to what's being seen.Finally he tries to remove the static nature of the object being viewed by introducing different time sequences in the same collage.(Weschler helpfully provides reproductions of the photocollages he's describing.) It's an exhilarating ride through the mind of a major artist working on nothing less than "the revitalization of depiction."

The final essay, "A Parkinsonian Passion," covers the unique career of Ed Weinberger.Weinberger was a classics major turned successful investment banker who in his early forties was stricken with Parkinson's disease.A keen, driven mind was suddenly trapped in a balky, sputtering body.Weinberger turned his considerable mathematical abilities to designing furniture whose specifications had tolerances as precise of those of aircraft or other sophisticated machines.His most useful tool turned out to be the carpenter Scott Schmidt, who built the pieces that Weinberger designed.

As his body grows increasingly beyond his control, Weinberger strains for greater precision and perfection in his art.Doing this work helped focus his body and gave him a way to strike back against the oppressive inexorability of his disease.Like Vermeer in the opening essay, Weinberger's story is one of spiritual as well as artistic triumph.

Like Hockney and Weinberger, Weschler is an artist who makes us see familiar things in a new way.

Thinking About the Unimaginable
I'd admired the writing of Lawrence Weschler for years through his writing for The New Yorker. (And it's WESCHLER, not WECHSLER as I'd misread it for the longest time.) He is one of the better essayists around and has some of the qualities that make that possible: an insatiable curiosity, the drive to pursue a topic to its inmost meaning, a mind that makes connections between seemingly disparate notions, an ability to empathize with people he writes about, a drive to explore almost unimaginably emotionally powerful situations, and a graceful prose style. This book collects twenty or so more-or-less unrelated pieces written over twenty years and on a variety of subjects. He has grouped them, however, into related areas: A Balkan Triptych, Three Polish Survivor Stories, Grandfathers and Daughters, Three L.A. Stories, Three Portraits of Artists, and a postlude, 'A Final Vermeer Convergence.'

The title piece, 'Vermeer in Bosnia,' is about the Hague War Crimes tribunal and derives its title from the tribunal judge who day in and day out has to listen and look at evidences of the horrors of the genocidal acts taking place in the former Yugoslavia; he confesses that he restores his peace of mind by going to visit the Vermeers at the nearby Mauritshuis Museum. This theme of the horror of war and racial intolerance (and the humanemotional interconnections in spite of them) runs through the entire book. Roman Polanski's chaotic childhood in WWII Poland. Graphic novelist ('Maus') Art Spiegelman's parents' physical escape from concentration camps but their inability to escape in their minds. The story of Weschler's own grandfather, the celebrated Austrian composer Ernst Toch and his repeated relocations due to the political situation in Europe. (As primarily a classical music CD reviewer, I have reviewed recordings of music by Toch which is having a resurgence, but had had no idea until I read Weschler's piece about him that he was the composer's grandson. There is a short piece about a since recorded major work of his, a Passover choral work, 'Cantata of the Bitter Herbs,' which is available here at Amazon.)

There are also pieces that celebrate the ineffable connection between fathers and their daughters (or grandfathers and granddaughters).There's a charming piece (from the NPR program 'This American life') about his own daughter's firm belief in the existence of the Borrowers (Mary Norton's children's book characters). I had to chuckle because the Borrowers live at our house, too. There are pieces about Weschler's own beloved Los Angeles in an article about an LA native's high school years, about the unique quality of the light in LA, and his own (and others') experience of the Northridge earthquake.

Finally, there are three wonderful pieces about artists David Hockney, Edward Kienholz and most remarkable of all, Ed Weinberger, who is all but paralyzed by a particularly vicious form of Parkinsonism but who continues to turn out the most meticulously crafted three-dimensional pieces with the help of an extraordinarily talented younger artist, Scott Schmidt. (Weinberger was the inspiration for Robert de Niro's character in the movie 'Awakenings.')

This is a book to dip into at leisure, but be prepared to find yourselfengaged, even entranced, while you are also being shocked, horrified, amused and moved.

Scott Morrison ... Read more