This is the first in-depth, English-language history of modern Serbia in nearly half a century. It covers the period from the Serbian state-s revolutionary rebirth in the early nineteenth century, under the rebel leaders Karadorde Petrovic and Milo- Obrenovic; its turbulent history of wars, uprisings and dynastic rivalries; the triumph of Yugoslav unification in 1918; and the catastrophe of occupation by Nazi Germany in 1941. It shows how the birth of the modern nation-state involved the creation of a new elite-dynasty, army and bureaucracy-whose rule over the peasantry generated a popular resistance that would ultimately take form in Nikola Pa-ic-s mighty People-s Radical Party. The resulting struggle between elitist Westernisers and pro- Russian populists became entwined with the struggle for pan-Serb and Yugoslav liberation and unification. These causes came together with the Sarajevo assassination of 1914, which triggered the First World War.Existing histories of the Yugoslav kingd
