New state, modern statesman

When the Irish writer Ethel Voynich published The gadfly in 1897 about a romantic revolutionary in the Italian Risorgimento her book was a resounding success. It was read in Mountjoy Prison by Irish republicans in the war of independence against British rule and was wildly popular in Russia, China and Iran. Today, however, we barely recognize the role of the individual as an agent of historical upheaval unless they are grand old men of destiny like Charles de Gaulle or Nelson Mandela. Recent European history in particular has become about management by uninspiring political figures whose middle-aged failings and feet of clay get highlighted. The western Balkans was the last great European war zone of the twentieth century. Here nations were born in blood and fire. Slovenia won its freedom with hardly a shot fired. Croatia required a bloody, protracted war. Macedonia was protected by the foresight of President George H. W. Bush who sent 1,000 US soldiers to act as a line the Serbs dared not cross

Ancient history · Art history · China · Destiny (ISS module · Economic history · George (robot · Independence (probability theory · Irish · Political science · Politics · State (computer science · History · Law · Philosophy · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East