"At the end of the twentieth century people spoke as if the Balkans had plagued Europe forever.". "Mark Mazower dispels current Western cliches and replaces stereotypes with an account of how mountains, empires and religions have shaped their inhabitants' lives. As a bridge between Europe and Asia the Balkans has been exposed to a constant incursion of nomadic peoples across the centuries. Mountain ranges made farming hard and political control almost impossible and allowed small communities to live side by side through to the end of the twentieth century. Empires based on religion not ethnicity shaped customs and beliefs in ways that did not entirely vanish with the coming of modernity."--BOOK JACKET.