A book about the relationship between Germany and Croatia after independence has just appeared in print. Among other things, it focuses on the Ustashas and their crimes during World War II. The author argues that Croatia must go through a cleansing from fascism and Nazism similar to that which Germany went through in the postwar period. And so on, and so forth. By Croatian standards, a brave book. It was written by a German, though. Which brings me to the point I have made several times already: no book worth reading about Croatia is likely to be written by a Croat. This applies to the history of the country, of course. As well as the history of its capital, among other significant cities. In all likelihood, such books will be written by foreigners. The rub is that Croatia is so unimportant in world affairs that we are likely to wait for a long time for good books about the country to appear in print.

Addendum (November 13, 2016)

Well, the rub actually is that Croatia is so unimportant in world affairs that we will wait in vain for good books about the country ever to appear in print. On the one hand, climate change and environmental degradation will be in ever-greater focus around the globe. This will cause ever-greater tensions across the planet, on the other. By and by, geopolitics will overshadow everything else, and by a wide margin. At best, Croatia will play a noticeable rôle only in the Balkans, where America and Russia will wage a proxy war sooner or later. This is the only context in which a foreigner may come up with a credible book shedding some light on Croatian affairs, among others. But the global conflict will eventually overshadow regional conflicts of this nature, and books worth talking about will quickly go the way of the dodo. In short, no book worth reading about Croatia is likely ever to be written, not even by a foreigner. Amen.