Ivo Banac (; 1 March 1947 – 30 June 2020) was a
Croatian-American
Croatian Americans or Croat Americans ( hr, Američki Hrvati) are Americans who have full or partial Croatian ancestry. In 2012, there were 414,714 American citizens of Croat or Croatian descent living in the United States as per revised 2010 Un ...
historian, a professor of European history at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
and a politician of the former
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
in Croatia, known as the Great Bard of Croatian historiography. , Banac was a consultant for the
Bosnian Institute. He died after a serious illness at age 73.
Biography
Banac was born in Dubrovnik in 1947. In 1959 he emigrated to the United States with his mother, reuniting with his father who had escaped from Yugoslavia in 1947.
After his father's death in a traffic accident a year later, Ivo lived with his mother in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
,
where he studied history at
Fordham University, graduating in 1969.
In the same year Banac moved to
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
,
where he obtained M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from the
Stanford University.
Although he was a member of
Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s, and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships ...
, by his own account he was not attracted by the
West Coast flower power
Flower power was a slogan used during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance and nonviolence. It is rooted in the opposition movement to the Vietnam War. The expression was coined by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsbe ...
movement of the late 1960s.
Banac worked at the Stanford University Department of History and Linguistics from 1972 to 1977,
and then moved back to the
East Coast to teach at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
. While at Yale, he earned his
tenure
Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...
, and was a two-time master of
Pierson College
Pierson College is a residential college at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut. Opened in 1933, it is named for Abraham Pierson, a founder and the first rector of the Collegiate School, the college later known as Yale. With just under 50 ...
.
His 1984 book ''The National Question in Yugoslavia: Origins, History, Politics'' was awarded the
Wayne S. Vucinich Prize for the best North American book in the field of Russian and Eastern European studies.
During his stay in the United States, Banac regularly visited Yugoslavia.
While visiting Zagreb in 1971, he met
Vlado Gotovac and
Franjo Tuđman, who would both become major Croatian political figures after the fall of communism.
Banac remained in close contact with Gotovac until his death in 2000;
on the other hand, he reportedly didn't think highly of Tuđman, describing him as a person who could not tolerate dissent.
Nonetheless, Banac organized Tuđman's lecture at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
in 1990.
In 1990, Banac was accepted as an associate member in the
Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts
The Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts ( la, Academia Scientiarum et Artium Croatica, hr, Hrvatska akademija znanosti i umjetnosti, abbrev. HAZU) is the national academy of Croatia.
HAZU was founded under patronage of the Croatian bishop J ...
. Between 1994 and 1999 he was the director of the Institute on Southern Europe at the
Central European University
Central European University (CEU) is a private research university accredited in Austria, Hungary, and the United States, with campuses in Vienna and Budapest. The university is known for its highly intensive programs in the social science ...
,
Budapest
Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...
. From 1990 onwards, Ivo Banac was also active in Croatian politics. He joined the
Croatian Social Liberal Party
The Croatian Social Liberal Party ( hr, Hrvatska socijalno-liberalna stranka or HSLS) is a conservative-liberal political party in Croatia. The HSLS was formed in 1989 as the first Croatian political party formed after the reintroduction of mult ...
(HSLS) and became one of the strongest critics of
Franjo Tuđman and his government, especially with regards to policy towards
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...
. He expressed his criticism in a column written for ''
Feral Tribune
''Feral Tribune'' was a Croatian political weekly magazine. Based in Split, it first started as a political satire supplement in '' Nedjeljna Dalmacija'' (the Sunday edition of the ''Slobodna Dalmacija'' daily newspaper) before evolving into an in ...
''. After the HSLS split in 1997, Banac joined the
Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
, keeping a critical distance towards the government even after LS became part of a new governing left-centre coalition in 2000.
He often accused
Ivica Račan of the
SDP of not doing enough to reverse the negative policies of Tuđman's era. Many were surprised to find Banac, who had a reputation of a maverick and independent intellectual, become the leader of the LS. It was even more surprising to see him take the post of Minister of Environmental Protection in 2003. He held that post for only a few months, until the SDP - the party with whom the LS was aligned - lost the election to a rejuvenated HDZ.
He was elected to the Croatian Parliament in the
2003 Croatian parliamentary election
Parliamentary elections to elect all 151 members of the Croatian Parliament were held on 23 November 2003. They were the fifth parliamentary elections to take place since the first multi-party elections in 1990. Voter turnout was 61.7%. The result ...
.
After the elections, Banac advocated a merger of all liberal parties in Croatia. This policy was opposed by
Zlatko Kramarić
Zlatko Kramarić (born 5 February 1956) is a Croatian liberal politician from Osijek.
Kramarić was born in Osijek and graduated in philology (Macedonian literature) at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb. Late ...
who orchestrated Banac's removal from the party leadership in 2004. Banac left the LS in February 2005 and was an independent representative in the
Sabor
The Croatian Parliament ( hr, Hrvatski sabor) or the Sabor is the unicameral legislature of the Republic of Croatia. Under the terms of the Croatian Constitution, the Sabor represents the people and is vested with legislative power. The Sabo ...
for the rest of his term.
He was publicly criticized for having allegedly mishandled public funds, by renting his personal apartment to himself as office space, as well as furnishing it with taxpayers money. Banac replied, to accusations that such actions constitute mishandling of public funds, that while "the data published in the media are correct, it is all a matter of interpretation, is the glass half full or half empty". Between 2007 and 2009, Banac was the President of the
Croatian Helsinki Committee.
At Yale, he was the Bradford Durfee Professor of History Emeritus.
He also served as the director of the Council on
European Studies
European studies is a field of study offered by many academic colleges and universities that focuses on current developments in European integration.
Some programmes offer a social science or public administration curriculum focusing on develop ...
at
Yale University
Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
.
In his later years, Banac was accused of
historical revisionism. In a 2017 lecture organized by the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Požega Banac stated among other things, that the
Ustaše
The Ustaše (), also known by anglicised versions Ustasha or Ustashe, was a Croatian fascist and ultranationalist organization active, as one organization, between 1929 and 1945, formally known as the Ustaša – Croatian Revolutionary Move ...
movement was based on the tradition of
Hajduks and could not be identified with modern fascist movements. Banac also blamed World War II in Yugoslavia on the
King Alexander dictatorship and stated that Communism caused much greater damage than fascism.
Selected bibliography
Books
*
**
**
* ''With Stalin against Tito: Cominformist splits in Yugoslav communism'' (1988)
* ''Cijena Bosne''
'The Price of Bosnia''(1996)
* ''Raspad Jugoslavije''
'The Break-up of Yugoslavia''(2001).
Papers
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
References
External links
Ivo Banac - Detalji znanstvenika (Scientist profile at the
Ruđer Bošković Institute
The Ruđer Bošković Institute (RBI; hr, Institut Ruđer Bošković, , IRB) is a research institute located in the Šalata neighborhood of Zagreb, Croatia, founded in 1950, which studies the sciences.
Description
It is the largest Croatian resea ...
)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Banac, Ivo
1947 births
2020 deaths
Writers from Dubrovnik
20th-century American historians
Yugoslav emigrants to the United States
Representatives in the modern Croatian Parliament
Historians of the Balkans
Historians of the Holocaust
Historians of communism
Stanford University Department of History faculty
Yale University faculty
Fordham University alumni
Stanford University alumni
Croatian Social Liberal Party politicians
Liberal Party (Croatia) politicians
Government ministers of Croatia
Croatian human rights activists