"Outstanding."--Misha Glenny, London Review of Books"Passionate, learned, entertaining, polemical, ambitious, courageous."--Slavic Review"Contains many brilliant insights and always displays the author's enormous erudition."--CHOICE"Todorova's book is a passionate, provocative, and necessary attempt to retrace the construction of a pejorative image of the Balkans."--Nicholas J. Miller, Journal of Interdisciplinary History"Full of challenging ideas, forcefully presented opinions, references for further reading, and enlightening observations."-Gale Stokes, H-Net"By far the best work of historiography on the region."- Tomislav Z. Longinovic, Lingua Franca