Research Paper on:
Balkan Ghosts A Journey Through History by Robert D. Kaplan

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
does not want to be regarded as simply a Western writer who is critiquing the East. Kaplan would prefer to be known as an insightful journalist who is attempting  to portray a region completely foreign to the West with compassion and understanding. Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History is a 300+ page compilation of Kaplans perceptions about the  Balkans, which serves not only as an informative travelogue to anyone unfamiliar with the area, covering anything and everything Balkan, including the regions of Kosovo, Bulgaria, Albania, Romania, even Transylvania  and Greece. He provides comprehensive backgrounds on the regions covered in order to put the bloody events after the collapse of Eastern Communism into a historical perspective. Kaplan  makes clear his intentions from the very beginning, pulling no punches. He writes, "In a world rapidly becoming homogenized through the proliferation of luxury hotels, mass tourism, and satellite  communications, fewer unsimulated adventures remain... Adventure may invite one, therefore, to use landscape as a vehicle to reveal the past and the historical process" (ix). Balkan Ghosts divided  into four parts or sections. Part 1 is entitled, "Yugoslavia: Historical Overtures," and breaks down the chapters according to regions, including Croatia, "Old" Serbia and Macedonia, and Belgrade, also  known as "White City." Part 2 is a physical and historical journey through Romania, and brings the areas of Bucharest, the Danube, Moldavia, and Transylvania to life. Part  3 is a consideration of Bulgaria, and takes a close and personal look at an area with which Kaplan is well-familiar. The fourth and final section examines Greece, and  might well be subtitled, "Where East and West Collide." The Epilogue is entitled, "The Road to Adrianople," an ancient Turkish city of particular significance, since its history was written