June 3, 1999
Web posted at: 12:12 p.m. EDT (1612 GMT)

(CNN) -- Americans have seen images of ethnic Albanian refugees fleeing Kosovo for weeks. Daily news coverage of NATO bombings of Belgrade has outlined current horrors, but few Americans understand the complex history behind this region.

British journalist Noel Malcolm released his book "Kosovo: A Short History" in hardback last year. The paperback version will be released at the end of this month and will include a new preface detailing recent events and attempting to clarify the issues behind the current crisis.

Published by HarperPerennial, the book lays out the complicated geographic and ethnic histories of the Balkan province.

In the introduction to "Kosovo," Malcolm writes, "No one knows how the story will end in Kosovo.... It is arguably the area with the worst human rights abuses in the whole of Europe, and certainly the place where, if war does break out, the killing and destruction will be more intense than anything hitherto witnessed in the region."

Starting from the sixth century A.D., he outlines the movements in and out of Kosovo by a number of peoples: Serbs, Proto-Albanians, Macedonians, Bulgarians, Croats, Vlachs and various tribal clans.

Depicting battles and introducing historical figures, Malcolm relays the series of events that led to modern Kosovo.

He points out the tendency of Serbs and Albanians to rewrite history to serve their own needs. He argues for a revisionist view of the region without the nationalistic and ideological positions held by the Serbs and Albanians.

Born in 1956, Malcolm studied at Cambridge University, where he gained a starred First in English and a Ph.D. in History. He has served as the foreign editor of the London Spectator and as a political columnist for the Daily Telegraph. He is author of six other books, including "Bosnia: A Short History."