PREFACE

The reissue of this book in a second edition is a happy occasion for me. It gives me the opportunity to return to what was my first book and to add to it a great deal of new information picked up over the succeeding years. In its original incarnation, this book grew out of my Ph.D. dissertation research at UCLA, under the mentorship of Andrzej Korbonski. I began work on the manuscript in 1978 and spent a year in Yugoslavia, 1979-80, thanks to a Fulbright-Hayes fellowship, doing the major part of the research for the first edition. A third trip to Yugoslavia in 1982 (my first trip had been in 1978), funded by a grant from the American Council of Learned Societies, allowed me to supplement my research with extensive interviews.

Since the publication of the first edition, I have made several return visits to Yugoslavia (specifically in 1987, 1988, and 1989), conducting extensive interviews with people in many walks of life, including government officials, economists, journalists, feminist sociologists, clergymen, rock performers, and dissidents. That broad interview data has given me insights and ideas I could not have gleaned from interviews only with politicians and economists and has given me a better sense of the spirit and mood of the country. The 1989 visit was funded by grants from the University of Washington Graduate School Research Fund and from IREX.

My professors at UCLA—Andrzej Korbonski and Bariša Krekić—were an inspiration to me in my work on this book and helped me fashion my research skills. I am also indebted to Robin Alison Remington and Dennison I. Rusinow, who read early drafts for the first edition and provided many thoughtful recommendations.

Some of the material in this book has been published earlier. The section on Albanian nationalism in chapter 9 is a considerably revised and updated version of “Problems of Albanian Nationalism in Yugoslavia,” which appeared originally in Orbis (vol. 25, no. 2 [Summer 1981]). The section on the Slovenian syndrome, in the same chapter, is a revised and extended version of a section of “Yugoslavia 1987: Stirrings from Relow,” originally published in South Slav Journal (vol. 10, no. 3 [Autumn 1987]). Chapter 11 originally appeared under the title, “Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic: A Profile,” in Orbis (vol. 35, no. 1 [Winter 1991]). My thanks to Orbis and to South Slav Journal for their permission to reuse this material.

Finally, a personal note: The first edition of this book appeared under the byline of Pedro Ramet, and the second edition appears under the byline of Sabrina P. Ramet. I have always felt female, from about age ten, if not before. After unending cycles of deep depression, starting about age twelve and coming at a rhythm of every three to six months, I finally accepted myself, in December 1989, for who and what I am and began the long process of transformation to bring my physical sex into harmony with my psychic gender. I am happier now and know greater peace of mind than I have ever known.

Sabrina Petra Ramet
Seattle, Washington