Aleksa Djilas was Research Associate, Russian Research Center, Harvard University, from 1987 to 1994.

To write about the national question [of] Yugoslavia is to enter a mine field of national prejudices ready to explode. Djilas enters this mine field with courage but not recklessness. His evenhandedness is impressive...He provides remarkably dispassionate descriptions of a wide range of movements, ideologies, personalities, and evils...His book should be essential reading for anyone interested in Yugoslavia's troubled past and doubtful future.