{"id":40189,"date":"2024-03-25T22:05:35","date_gmt":"2024-03-25T22:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=40189"},"modified":"2024-03-25T22:05:35","modified_gmt":"2024-03-25T22:05:35","slug":"robert-c-austin-royal-fraud-the-story-of-albanias-first-and-last-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=40189","title":{"rendered":"Robert C. Austin, \u201eRoyal Fraud: The Story of Albania\u2019s First and Last King\u201c"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Major new book sheds light on probably the strangest monarch of the 20th century, King Zog I of Albania \u2018the bizarre King Zog\u2019 and \u2018the last ruler of romance\u2019\u2026 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few people will recall that Albania once had its own homegrown king who apparently said little but survived the most dangerous period in European history. Even before Albania was a kingdom it was often a mere curiosity. In 1912, when it declared independence from the Ottoman Empire, newspapers likened Albania to \u201cDarkest Africa\u201d with its gun-toting mountain dwellers, blood feuds, veiled women, and sheep. When it became a kingdom in 1928, with a self-declared King Zog I, the sniggering continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert Austin\u2019s Royal Fraud: The Story of Albania\u2019s First and Last King<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, publishing in March, tells the colourful story of this Balkan country’s first and only monarch, beginning its narrative in 1961, when Albanian King Zog I died in a Paris hospital after 22 years in exile. The road to becoming Europe’s youngest president in 1925 and then king of Albania in 1928 was paved with feuds and assassinations, a political career-path common in the region. He craved the throne for several reasons; the Balkans were mostly run by kings, and Zog wanted to impress his mother and give his six sisters an easy social rise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once king, his accomplishments were decidedly meagre. He spent most of his time keeping up appearances as a monarch despite the obvious fraud he had imposed on an illiterate and uninterested population. His one great success was that he had almost all his opponents assassinated, usually in broad daylight abroad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zog retained his power until his \u2018friend\u2019 Mussolini ousted him in 1939. On the surface a Westerniser, this self-proclaimed ruler left Albania almost as he found it, with almost no roads or trains, thoroughly uneducated and utterly impoverished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert Austin\u2019s book combines Zog\u2019s adventurous life story with a studious analysis of Albania’s political history from the fall of the Ottoman Empire to the threshold of Euro-Atlantic integration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Robert C. Austin is the Associate Director at the Centre for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies, Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/ceupress.com\/article\/2024-02-29\/out-now-royal-fraud-story-albanias-first-and-last-king<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ivan Lupi\u0107, redoviti profesor u Odsjeku za anglistiku i Odsjeku za kroatistiku Sveu\u010dili\u0161ta u RijeciShakespeare, kazali\u0161te, glazbaKada se susre\u0107emo sa\u2026","rel":"","context":"U "Novosti"","block_context":{"text":"Novosti","link":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/noc_knjige_2026.jpg?fit=680%2C276&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/noc_knjige_2026.jpg?fit=680%2C276&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/historiografija.hr\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/noc_knjige_2026.jpg?fit=680%2C276&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":52679,"url":"https:\/\/historiografija.hr\/?p=52679","url_meta":{"origin":40189,"position":5},"title":"CfP: CHOSEN NATION(S): HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL INTERPRETATIONS OF EXCEPTIONALISM, BUDAPEST, 10TH\u201311TH JUNE 2026 (DEADLINE: 1ST MAY 2026)","author":"Branimir Jankovi\u0107","date":"27. travnja 2026.","format":false,"excerpt":"The Ludovika University of Public Service (NKE) and the Jewish Theological Seminary \u2013 University of Jewish Studies (OR-ZSE) are pleased to announce a joint academic conference on \u201cChosen Nation(s): Historical and Cultural Interpretations of Exceptionalism\u201d, to be held in Budapest, Hungary. 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