Your review of David James Smith’s One Morning in Sarajevo: 28 June 1914 (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2008) clearly shows that many in the Balkans still harbor fond memories of the Austro-Hungarian empire, whose demise was triggered by the assassination of the heir-apparent to the imperial throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand (“Starting Pistol,” September 6, 2008). “If it hadn’t been for them, we’d still be in Austria,” Smith quotes a cross taxi-driver in modern-day Sarajevo, who was asked about a memorial to Gavrilo Princip and his co-conspirators. Indeed, Emperor Franz Josef II, who ruled the enlightened multi-ethnic empire from 1848 to 1916, is still remembered by many in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, and parts of Serbia with surprising fervor. What your review misses, perhaps in line with the book, is that the taxi-driver’s lament offers the best hope for the European Union in the region, where such sentiments are rife. Although foreign rule is widely resented, it nonetheless offers the best hope for the future. The Union’s authorities would be best advised to exploit these Balkan sentiments as best they could.

Addendum (September 29, 2008)

This letter got printed in the current issue of the mighty newspaper. This is the third and thus almost certainly the last letter to appear this year, but I am quite happy the editor has selected it for publication. My message to the European Union is loud and clear, and I hope someone powerful enough to make a difference picks it up soon. Great sensitivity to Balkan sensitivities will be needed, but there must be a few clever people in Brussels at this juncture. Or so we would all hope for the sake of the troubled region.