Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The Black Hand: The History of the Secret Serbian Nationalist Group Whose Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand Sparked World War I

jjares avatar reviewed on + 3294 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1


This is a great overview of Serbia, its struggle for independence, and the difficult fight within the country while seeking that independence. It took a couple of tries to get through this book; perhaps I wasn't ready to read it earlier.

This secret Serbian society used terrorist methods to achieve its aims. They wanted the liberation of Serbs outside Serbia (under Habsburg or Ottoman rule). This is an interesting story about the frustrations and difficulties this band of Serbian brothers had while trying to bring about change in Serbia.

We tend to hear about the successes of a group; this story told more about their frustrations and failures while the Black Hand was trying to find (and kill) a political figure. It was surprising to see how many military officers, government officials, lawyers, and radicals banded together as an anti-Austria-Hungary terrorist group.

The photos offered were great; I would have liked to understand the hierarchy of the Austrian-Hungary regime better.