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This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press's mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1958

THE AUTHOR REVIEWS THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SERBS AND CROATS BEFORE WORLD WAR I AND DEMONSTRATES HOW THE AUTHORS OF TEXTBOOKS UTILIZED THE WRITINGS OF VUK STEFANOVIC KARADZIC TO FOSTER SERBIAN NATIONALISM. HE SUMMARIZES SOME OF VUK'S VIEWS THAT APPEARED IN SERBIAN GEOGRAPHY, HISTORY, AND LITERATURE TEXTBOOKS AND SHOWS HOW THESE PUBLICATIONS STRENGTHENED SERBIAN AND CROATIAN NATIONALISM AT THE EXPENSE OF SOUTH SLAVIC COOPERATION AND UNDERSTANDING.

Geography and history textbooks used in Serbia contributed to the origins of World War I in probably the first instance in which one country used the contents of textbooks as one of its justifications for declaring war on another. Much has been published about Austro-Hungarian reactions to provocative statements by prominent individuals in Serbian newspapers and journals; however, no study has been made of the textbooks to which reference is made in the Habsburg ultimatum of 23 July 1914. The ultimatum listed ten specific demands, including one for the suppression of publications that incited "hatred and contempt" of the monarchy and threatened its "territorial integrity." Point three, which is the focus of this study, called for the elimination "without delay from public instruction in Serbia both as regards the teaching body and the methods of instruction, all that serves or might serve to foment propaganda against Austria-Hungary."Alexander Musulin, the counselor in the foreign ministry who drafted the ultimatum, characterized the Serbian reply as "the most brilliant specimen of diplomatic skill that I know." It stated in essence that Serbia was ready to satisfy Austria-Hungary's demand upon receiving proof of the charges. Concerning textbooks, the reply noted that Austria "made no representation except one concerning a schoolbook, and that on that occasion the Imperial and Royal Government received an entirely satisfactory explanation."

As is well known, the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, which was founded on December 1,1918, did not achieve the success envisaged for it. It is generally assumed that the state was the direct product of Yugoslavism, a Croatian concept formulated in the nineteenth century, which found adherents among the Serbs and Slovenes. Although there is no consensus among scholars concerning the precise definition of Yugoslavism, in its basic terms the concept called for the union of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes in one state. The proponents of Yugoslavism argued that as long as the three nations remained separate they were subject to domination by their stronger neighbors, whereas united they would be in a better position to determine their own future. These proponents never agreed on the exact political organization of the union, whether it should be a centralized or federalized state, but they assumed that the kingdom would have one army and a single foreign and trade policy, and that each nation would retain considerable local autonomy, for example, in education, religious affairs, and police jurisdiction. Yet the ultimate success of Yugoslavism was dependent on the acceptance by Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes of the basic premise that they were in essence one people, and that eventually they would no longer give primacy to their Serbianism, Croatianism, and Slovenianism but would offer their undivided loyalty to the larger Yugoslav concept.