A Concise History of Albania

Published by: Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2022, xxiv+400pp. ISBN: 9781107662186.

A pleasure to read, A Concise History of Albania, by Bernd J. Fischer and Oliver Jens Schmitt, takes the reader on an impressive grand tour of what really matters in Albanian history. The authors tell a compelling and complex story of Europe’s most isolated country, from ancient Illyria to the post-Communist era. An unusual history then, this project sets out to present the narrative in an easily-digested work, suited to our era of cynical distrust of professed experts.

The authors start the book by explaining that even the modern term ‘Albania’ refers “less to a rigid space than to a fluid area” (p. 4). It seems the borders of the Albanian folk group have almost always merged into multiple multi-lingual territories, with very few precise demarcating rivers or mountains; partly because of these poor de ned ethnic or political boundaries, the entire area was one of competition between the Roman Catholic Church and that of the Eastern Orthodox faith for over a thousand years.

Part of the Cambridge University ‘concise history’ series, the book is divided into two parts. Over 140 pages, the first section focuses on the origins of the Albanian folk group from antiquity to the end of the Ottoman era in 1912. The proclamation of an Albanian state in November that year is treated as a significant turning point in this text. Over 230 pages, the second half of the book explores historical developments towards the creation of the modern nation-state of Albania over the past 100 years. There are 12 excellent maps here, plus 56 black and white photographs, illustrating key points in this history. A Concise History of Albania strives to be concise, so there are no academic footnotes or endnotes, but there is an excellent bibliography.