I am a Slovak-American and a Rusyn-American. As such, I have stongly mixed feelings about this book.
It is the only currently available attempt to chronicle the complete history of the Slovak people. In many parts, it is superb. It exudes a sense of pride for a culture that has often been ignored or undervalued, even by the Slovaks themselves and their children and grandchildren.
This made it even harder for me to accept the anti-Czech bias of this book and its efforts to justify and lionize Tiso, who was the pro-Nazi dictator of Slovakia during World War II.
Certainly, the Czechs have looked down on their "little brothers" in Slovakia from time to time. Had the Slovaks not joined with the Czechs after WWI to form Czechoslovakia, however, they would undoubted have remained as part of Hungary, and their culture might have disappeared entirely. Kirschbaum considers Czechoslovakia as a Czech attempt to dominate the Slovaks, and the goal of a completely independent Slovakia as the only acceptable outcome of Slovak history. It is still far from clear that Slovakia is better off on its own, rather than as part of a democratic Czechoslovakia.
Most troubling of all for me was Kirschbaum's defense of Father Josef Tiso, who took power in Slovakia with Hitler's blessing after Germany created the "Protectorate" of Bohemia and Moravia. Under Tiso, Slovakia colaborated with the Nazis to keep the appearance of being an independent state. This was justified, according to the author, because it meant that the Catholic Slovak majority could have control of their own country for the first time in history. While he admits that Tiso helped ship Slovakia's Jews off to the concentration camps, Kirschbaum claims he did so more slowly than the Nazis desired. Tiso also repressed the country's other minorities, including Hungarians, Gypsies, Poles, Rusyns and non-Catholics. Germans were treated well, of course, so as not to displease the Nazis. Meanwhile, the Czechs were stiking back at the Nazis, and enduring the devastation of the town of Lidice.
Slovakia's second chance at an independent nation, in 1993, also started off badly, although democracy seems to have grown stronger in the past year or so. It is still too early to tell whether Slovakia can survive as an independent economic entity, and whether it can create a tolerant society. The book's attitudes of "Czechs bad, Slovaks good," and "complete independence is worth any price" taint an otherwise well told and researched work.
