This collection of essays (twelve in French and six in English) represents the proceedings of a conference reexamining the 1908 Bosnian crisis. This conference, held in Paris on the one-hundredth anniversary of the annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina by the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, was organized by Catherine Horel (Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS, and Identités, relations internationales et civilisations de l'Europe research center, IRICE, at the University of Paris I).

The volume has two sections, each containing nine essays whose range of topics mirrors the international pedigrees of its mostly senior contributors, drawn from universities and research institutes, as well as from former and active statesmen in France, Germany, Austria, Russia, the United Kingdom, Italy, Serbia, Croatia, and the United States. Winfried Baumgart introduces the Bosnian crisis, the preconditions for which were created when Vienna received the right to administer provisionally the Turkish regions of Bosnia and Herzegovina under the 1878 Berlin Treaty. In a nutshell, the crisis began with Austria-Hungary's decision to annex these regions in October 1908 and ended with international recognition of the fait accompli in March 1909. Although the crisis itself was of short duration, it had an international dimension due to its diplomatic intricacies, and more importantly, because it was contemporaneous with other major international events (the Young Turk Revolution in July 1908 and the Bulgarian declaration of independence in October 1908). Furthermore, it foreshadowed the Balkan wars and World War I. In light of this historical background, the contributors in the volume's first section seek to understand how the Great Power system functioned at that time and why the 1908 annexation did not spark a war.

The chapters in the second section then move on to analyze the multifaceted consequences of the regional crisis. A definite strength of this compilation is the rich historiographical assessment of the Bosnian crisis. If any criticism can be offered, the endeavor could have been strengthened both by a separate section synthesizing these historiographical issues and also by contributions from Turkish scholars.

Section I focuses on diplomatic history. Although perhaps at times too locked into a chronological structure and factual orientation, the chapters nevertheless engage the reader in the actions and agendas of the foreign ministers, politicians, scholars, and journalists of Austria-Hungary (Arnold Suppan), Germany (Holger Afflerbach), France, Russia, Great Britain, Italy (Francesco Guida), and Serbia (Vojislav Pavlović). Despite the broad spectrum of issues addressed, some themes do tie this section together. Indeed, the fact that France, England, and Russia vacillated between acting as part of the multilateral Concert of Europe and conversely as part of the alliance system (the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance) created tensions in this period that were, ultimately, detrimental to these countries (Georges-Henri Soutou, Patrick Louvier, and Victor Avdeev). As for the parallels between the 1908 and 1914 crises, they are undisputable: In both cases Berlin gave its unconditional support to Vienna, but in reality—and this might explain why no war erupted from the events of 1908—no European power wanted or had the ability to wage a war for Bosnia-Herzegovina, and no casus foederis forced any country to mobilize. Bernard Lory's brilliant examination of Bulgarian scholarship's official narrative of Bulgarian independence—which explores the country's declaration of independence in conjunction with Ferdinand I's motives, as well as its ramifications for Bulgarians living outside the new country—is also included in this section, although it might have fit better within the rubric of the second.

The second section of the volume complements the first. These chapters examine the local consequences of the annexation from religious and national points of view (Petar Vrankić, Philippe Gelez, Dušan T. Bataković, Stjepan Matković) or in terms of Austrian national policy in the region (Slobodan Šoja). Standing out from the other chapters, Paul B. Miller's and Catherine Horel's contributions offer new perspectives on, respectively, the contemporary memory of Francis Ferdinand's assassination and the multicultural milieu of Sarajevo, which became increasingly diversified under the Austrian administration (1878–1914).

Overall the essays offer a well-balanced perspective on the 1908 Bosnian crisis. The way these essays interrelate with each other, in terms of the themes and arguments presented, is not always straightforward. Still, the attentive reader, especially one interested in the Eastern question and the history of southeastern Europe, will benefit from this excellent volume. Of particular value are the closing chapters, by Horst Haselsteiner and Erhard Busek, analyzing the international community's role in this region. The one-hundredth anniversary of the Bosnian crisis indeed called for such reflection.