Introduction; 1. 'To the people, she was a character from folk poetry': the party's mobilizing rhetoric; 2. The 'organized women': developing the AFW; 3. The heroic and the mundane: women in the units; 4. The personal as a site of party intervention: privacy and sexuality; 5. After the war was over: legacy; Concluding remarks.
This book focuses on the mass participation of women in the communist-led Yugoslav Partisan resistance during World War II.
Jelena Batinić is currently a Fellow in the Thinking Matters Program at Stanford University, California. She is a historian specializing in modern Eastern Europe, World War II and gender history. Her work has been published in edited volumes and journals including the Journal of International Women's Studies and the Journal of Women's History. She has been a Mellon/ACLS Recent Doctoral Recipients Fellow and Postdoctoral Fellow in Stanford University's Introduction to the Humanities Program.
'Meticulously researched and convincingly argued, this is a
fascinating and important story long in need of serious examination
- important for its contribution not only to Yugoslav and women's
history but also to literature on modernization, comparative
communism, and gender and war. I look forward to assigning it!'
Carol Lilly, Director of International Studies Program, Eastern
Europe, Russian, and Soviet History, University of Nebraska,
Kearney
'Batinić breaks new ground in this engaging historical analysis of
gender as a critical organizing principle of the Yugoslav Partisan
movement and the communist system the Partisans built. The product
of extensive archival research and rich theoretical insight, this
book challenges the existing historical narratives of World War II
in Yugoslavia, and our understanding of the relationship between
gender identity and war.' Malgorzata Fidelis, University of
Illinois, Chicago
'Batinić has authored a compelling book that reveals the
pervasiveness of gender norms and the power of traditional culture.
The success of the Partisan Army relied heavily on the
incorporation of gender norms and manipulation of local traditions
into its ideology to achieve the mass mobilization of the peasants.
However, even in the midst of a war for survival, with
institutional support for gender equality, the daily practice of
gender inequality continued to occur. Batinić honors the memory and
sacrifice of these brave women. Much can be learned through this
study of the partizanka, from how and why she was created and
empowered to how and why she was forgotten.' H-War
'… the author presents refreshingly novel interpretations and
fascinating transnational comparisons between partizanke and their
contemporaries in Mao Zedong's Red Army, the Greek People's
Liberation Army, the French Resistance, and other such
organizations. On certain questions, such as Partisan sexual mores,
Batinić's contribution is truly trailblazing. … Batinić's study is
more than just a history of World War II resistance, and its
subtitle should in fact read as 'A History of Socialist Yugoslavia'
to capture the tremendous ground that this remarkable book covers.'
Gregor Kranjc, The American Historical Review
'[Batinić] is sympathetic to her subject matter but also
dispassionate and objective; she highlights the many contradictions
and ambiguities that were involved in the Partisans' revolutionary
mobilization of women in a highly patriarchal society. The
combination of rigorous methodology and extensive research based on
archival and other primary sources, as well as an impressive
mastery of the literature, comes together splendidly: this book is
essential reading for anyone interested in either gender or World
War II in Yugoslavia.' Marko Attila Hoare, Slavic Review
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