To write about the national question [of] Yugoslavia is to enter a mine field of national prejudices ready to explode. Djilas enters this mine field with courage but not recklessness. His evenhandedness is impressive...He provides remarkably dispassionate descriptions of a wide range of movements, ideologies, personalities, and evils...His book should be essential reading for anyone interested in Yugoslavia's troubled past and doubtful future.

What can explain the inability of Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Macedonians, Muslims, Albanians, and Hungarians to come to a peaceful settlement of their differences?...Djilas explain[s] all this and more...with verve, intelligence, and a superb mastery of facts.