Marcus Tanner
Author of Croatia: A Nation Forged in War
About the Author
Marcus Tanner was Balkan correspondent of the London "Independent" from 1988 to 1994, and subsequently the paper's assistant foreign editor. (Bowker Author Biography)
Works by Marcus Tanner
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Wimbledon, England, UK
- Occupations
- journalist
author - Organizations
- The Independent
Members
Reviews
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Statistics
- Works
- 7
- Members
- 415
- Popularity
- #58,725
- Rating
- 3.5
- Reviews
- 5
- ISBNs
- 21
- Languages
- 1
The travel story suffers from the author’s bias and ignorance. Without the necessary background and knowledge, his impressions are often uneven and not a fair assessment. His is the victor’s journey. The Hungarians and Germans in Transylvania are lampooned by him, mostly because he bases his account on Romanian information. This importation of the present into the past makes for some strange reading moments. Only a tiny minority of his readers will notice that the trip from Bratislava, Slovakia, to Hainburg, Austria, is just 20 km up on the other side of the Danube, or that the trip from Sopron, Hungary, to Wiener Neustadt, Austria, is likewise but 25 km.
The tale of Matthias Corvinus as a great book lover suffers from the realization that much of his orders were part of a not so subtle public relations campaign in Italy. He didn’t truly care neither about accuracy nor artistry. What he sought was to impress the Italian rulers, to physically show them that in the distant hinterland of Hungary a rich king was living. Building a huge castle or performing huge feast had less of a chance of being noticed far away than the steady stream of manuscripts and scholars making their way from Italy to Hungary.… (more)