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The author approaches Malcolm's book analytically and synthetically. The strength of Malcolm's book lies in the fact that it is not burdened with controversies of the Balkan historiography and chauvinistic mentality. Malcolm succeeded in demystifying the Kosovo battle (1389) and the "Great Migration of Serbs" (1689), the themes that Serbian historiography is burdened with. Malcom's book successfully exposes the causes of Balkan war, especially of the last one (1991-1999), as a consequence of Serbian hegemonistic ideology and policy. Malcolm's book will help both Serbian and Albanian historians to abandon a romantic approach in writing their histories. However, author could not aree with some of Malcolm's conclusions, such as assumed lack of oppressive measures of the Ottomans over local population in Kosovo or the argument that there is no Muslim fundamentalism among Albanians because they have an Albanian Christian Democratic Party. Likewise, Malcolm seems to accept the idea that there was a process of "albanisation" of Serbs in Kosovo based on the names of certain number of Albanian population, while at the same time denies that there was an identical process in the opposite direction. The reason for this confusion probably lies in the fact that Malcolm overlooks that it is a question of "albanisation" of Vlachs and not of Serbs. Inspite of these shortcomings. the autor highly recommends the book. (SOI : CSP: S. 571)

While the author is impressed by Cornwell's style and presentation, he is appaled by the lack of seriousness exhibited by the author who writes about an imprtant subject (not broached for the first time, by any means) and by demonstrated inability to supress his preconceived notions and even prejudices. Cornwell relies heavily on Owen Chadwick, which assures that he mentions most important facts about the involvement of the Cardinal and Pope Pius XII (whom Cornwell systematicaly entitles by his family name. Pacelli) in contemporary politics, but he bends and ignores Chadwick's research when he makes his judgment about the Pope. Cornwell's treatment of the Catholic Church in the Independent State of Croatia (he gives it an entrie chapter) is a traversy of research and objective writing. His main source. if not the only, for the presentation of the Church in Croatia during the World War II is the 35 years old book by Carlo Falconi. Cornwell perhaps did not know , but he could have and must have been informed, that Falconi wrote his piece on the basis of the propagandistic material given to him by the Yugos]av secrete service and propagandists, which served the purpose of anti-Chatolic propaganda in Yugoslavia. A well intended reader could excuse Cornwell (he does not read Croatian and could not know what some authors wrote about Falconi's sources at the time his book appeared), if he did not point those "Croatian materials" as essential not only for the condemnation of the Croatian Catholic episcopate, but for Pius XII as well. (SOI : CSP: S. 190)