Histories of specifically-defined regions necessarily confront considerable difficulties in determining parameters. This is especially apparent in attempts to impose narrative structure on a diverse cultural and geographical area like southeastern Europe. Such issues as language, sources, and continuity can frustrate the overviews of this complicated region. This problem can often result in an introspective view of the area in isolation from the rest of the world. To avoid this problem, Marie-Janine Calic, a professor of history at Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, has adopted a comprehensive approach. In her history of the region with the excellent title, The Great Cauldron, a History of Southeastern Europe, she imposes a global perspective upon southeastern Europe. This enables her to present many interesting insights into the history of this region. She frequently employs the term southeastern Europe but occasionally the older and less accurate term Balkan appears in her narrative.

One important aspect of Calic's study is her presentation of the Ottoman era. She emphasizes the cultural and economic connections between Ottoman-ruled southeastern Europe and the rest of the world. She is especially interesting in describing the Ottoman global outlook and their participation in the world economy. The Ottoman vizir Sokollu Mehmed contested control of the Indian Ocean with the Portuguese and even sent soldiers and weapons to support the sultanate of Aceh on the distant island of Sumatra. That Sokollu Mehmed himself was born an Orthodox Christian in Ottoman-ruled Hercegovina and owed his introduction into Ottoman service to the child tax (devşirme) demonstrates Professor Calic's emphasis on the global connections of southeastern Europe.

She establishes the global reach of southeastern Europe in many other areas. The Enlightenment began as a west European phenomenon but had important influence in the southeast. The activities of another Hercegovinian Orthodox native, Sava Vladislavich Raguzinsky, included studies in Venice, Spain, and France, business in Constantinople, and advising Tsar Peter I in St. Petersburg. The Moldavian prince Dimitrie Cantemir gained a broad education studying numerous languages including Greek, Latin, and Arabic and produced rationalist works on history, orientalism, and philosophy.

Calic is especially good on the cosmopolitan composition of Salonika during the Ottoman era. She manages the difficult task of presenting and evenly-balanced overview of the development of modern nationalism in southeastern Europe. The participation and leadership of Tito's Yugoslavia in the Cold War era Third World Movement provides a rich example of southeastern Europe's international reach in the modern era. In a more specific venue, she even references the international success of the Yugoslav soccer team in the 1930s. Perhaps, however, her mention of “Tarzan,” Johnny Weissmuller, a Banat-born German, as an example of the international context of southeastern Europe is a bit of a stretch.

Calic's global focus causes her to adopt a wide perspective on the parameters of southeastern Europe. She acknowledges, quite correctly, that a definition of southeastern Europe is an “insuperable task” (4). She adopts a flexible approach to this issue. Here, neither geography nor culture provides clear limits. Croatia and Slovenia warrant inclusion in the region. Post-1945 Moldova does not.

Overall, Calic's Cauldron is a valuable contribution to the understanding of the role of southeastern Europe in the global context. It is especially useful on Albanian and southwestern Slavic material and in viewing the post-Yugoslav peoples and states over the long historical term. This broad and comprehensive perspective, however, precludes some detailed information that could enhance the narrative. The reader who seeks to know more about the diplomatic entanglement, military conflict, and revolutionary outbursts that became so prevalent in this area in modern times will need to seek additional information. As a regional history, The Great Cauldron is best used in conjunction with one of the many more traditional regional histories in order to gain an overall perspective of southeastern Europe. Together with such classics as Leften Stavrianos's dated but still vital The Balkans since 1453 (1958), it can provide the reader with an excellent regional and global source for the understanding of this complicated region.