Twenty-Five Lectures on Modern Balkan History

FAQ

Many of the questions asked about this Web site fall into certain groups. This FAQ may be helpful to readers, since sometimes I cannot reply to email right away.

1. Q: Will there ever be a "Lecture 26" on the Kosovo crisis of 1999?

• A: Probably not, for three reasons. First, Lecture 25 (on the civil war in Bosnia) already illustrates how hard it is to write "history" in the absence of research sources in depth. Second, my current job (as a librarian) does not leave me enough free time to properly research this complicated event. Third, other sources are available.

2. Q: How should these lectures be cited in a footnote or bibliography?

• A: A variety of Web sites offer advice about citing Web resources. There are also printed reference guides, including Nancy Crane's  Electronic Styles: A Handbook for Citing Electronic Information (1996), and the newest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style. Based on those sources, Lecture 1 could be cited this way, as an example:
  • Sowards, Steven W. "Lecture No. 1: Geography and ethnic geography of the Balkans to 1500." Twenty-Five Lectures on Modern Balkan History. 1996. Online. Available: http://www.lib.msu.edu/sowards/balkan/lecture1.html. 5 January 2000.

3. Q: May a reader create a hot link to this Web site, from his or her own Web page?

• A: The author has no objection to links to these pages: the lectures were published on the Web to make the contents widely available. Links should make it easy for readers to find the URL for the original site. See the Conditions of Use for more detail.

4. Q: Is it permitted to quote from these Web pages?

• A: Yes, within limits. This material is under copyright, just like any printed book or article. Fair use allows quotation within reasonable limits. There are numerous guides to copyright on the Web: the MSU libraries provide a Web page with tutorials about copyright.

5. Q: Is it permitted to incorporate the text of one these Web pages in another Web site?

• A: Not without permission: while you may create links to these pages, you may not copy the entire block of source code. Readers should always be able to reach the main site: that way, they can view the latest version of the material, including all corrections and improvements. See the Conditions of Use for more detail.

6. Q: If a reader sees a typographical error, what can be done?

• A: When readers find mistakes in the text, the author likes to fix them. Send me an email at sowards@msu.edu describing the error and its location.

7. Q: If a reader believes that statements in the lectures are biased or untrue, what can be done?

• A: Send me an email at sowards@msu.edu. Many topics in Balkan history are controversial, and I receive many comments from readers who disagree with me about evidence or its interpretation. I may be able to explain my point of view, even if I am not willing to change my position. I prefer not to make large-scale changes in the text for reasons explained in the preface.

8. Q: Can the author recommend additional readings?

• A: For historical topics, I may be able to recommend some titles; for topics outside history, this is less likely. I have added a bibliographic note about the sources used in preparing these lectures in the early 1990s, but that list doesn't include works published since that time. Don't forget to use the resources of your local public or university library.

9. Q: Can the author answer detailed questions?

• A: I have a full-time job as a reference librarian, so I don't have the time to research the answer to very specific or very advanced questions: in many cases, I also may lack expertise, language skills or access to resources. I recommend asking for help at your local public or university library.

10. Q: Where can I find genealogical information for a family with roots in the Balkans?

• A: You can find genealogy sources on the Web with a simple keyword search in Yahoo! or other search engines. The World GenWeb Project includes a section for sources on Eastern Europe.

11. Q: Why does Topic 11 (The Coming of the Cold War) have only one lecture, when all the other topics have two?

• A: When these lectures were delivered as a Fall semester college course, Topic 11 fell during Thanksgiving week, so there wasn't enough time for the usual two lectures (one day a week was used for discussion).

12. Q: Why is the topic of (for example) Montenegro/Albania/the Roma/the role of women/the Byzantine Empire/etc. ignored in the lectures, despite its importance for a complete knowledge of Balkan history?

• A: The lectures are intended to introduce and illustrate broad trends in Balkan historical development, mainly since 1800. Like many historians I chose the theme of nationalist revolution around which to organize and summarize events during a long period. Each topic examines some specific cases that shed light on regional change, without attempting to be comprehensive (a job that would require writing an encyclopedia, not a course of lectures). For the same reason, coverage of each country is incomplete, because only selected events in each nation's history could be included. It remains my hope that interested readers will do more reading on their own, and discover a great deal more for themselves.

This page is a portion of a larger Web site, Twenty-Five Lectures on Modern Balkan History (The Balkans in the Age of Nationalism); click here to return to the Table of Contents page.

URL=http://www.lib.msu.edu/sowards/balkan/faq.html
Page editor: Steven Sowards
Last updated: 14 September 2007

Send e-mail to: sowards@msu.edu

This page has been visited times since 9 February 2000.