Communicologist Matej Škarica’s The Croats of Bosnia-Herzegovina: Heredity and Future Challenges (Concerning the Culture, History, Identity and Heritage of a Nation) has been published by Zagreb-based publishing company Alfa and reviewed by Božo Skoko and Ante Marić.
Communicologist Matej Škarica’s The Croats of Bosnia-Herzegovina: Heredity and Future Challenges (Concerning the Culture, History, Identity and Heritage of a Nation) has been published by Zagreb-based publishing company Alfa (www.alfa.hr).
The book’s reviewer Božo Skoko notes that the author delves into the issue of the identity of Bosnia-Herzegovina, focusing in particular on the status and identity of the Croatians in this country in the past and present and its outlook for the future. Škarica has focused on the issue of the building and preservation of the identity of the Croatian community in what is a composite state—in previous centuries and in its current political disposition.
Reviewer Ante Marić notes that the book aims to offer answers to many tough questions and to contribute to the survival of the Croatian sovereign component of Bosnia-Herzegovina. It also aims to answer some current questions concerning national identity, the preservation of cultural and historical heritage and the life of the Croatian people today. In their own historical land, the Croatian component has been reduced to the smallest of the constitutive nations, but, Marić notes, they have to the present successfully navigated turbulent times.
On 350 pages Škarica’s The Croats of Bosnia-Herzegovina: Heredity and Future Challenges (Concerning the Culture, History, Identity and Heritage of a Nation) presents six chapters: The International Mystery Known as Bosnia-Herzegovina: The Historical and Socio-Political Role of Croats in the Stabilisation of the Country / Bosnia-Herzegovina: A Brief History of an International Failure / An Overview of the Socio-Political and Cultural Situation of Medieval Bosnia-Herzegovina / The Gradual Building of Identity Attributes in the Critical Medieval Period / The Identity of Bosnia-Herzegovinian Society and Various Comparative Models.
The book closes with a bibliography and index of names.
Matej Škarica was born in Mostar in 1981. He graduated with a degree in journalism from the University of Mostar in 2005. In 2006 he began his post-graduate studies of language and culture in contact (journalism) at the university’s Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. He has authored a number of books, including Propaganda kroz europsku povijest (“Propaganda in European History”). (Hina)