The Footprints of Gavrilo Princip: June 28, 1914, in History and Memory

FAIN: FT-53978-06

Paul Brian Miller
International University of Sarajevo (Sarajevo 71000 Bosnia and Herzegovina)

The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand on June 28, 1914, in Sarajevo is universally recognized as the immediate cause of the First World War, thus marking the onset of the 20th century itself. By examining the various and often conflicting memories of the assassination since it first entered human consciousness as an event of world historical significance (in monuments, museums, history textbooks, anniversaries, novels, etc.), my book project aims to be a reflection on the process of making and assimilating history. Two crucial components of this research are Austrian and Yugoslav memories. Having completed the majority of work on the latter during 2004–05, I am seeking a summer stipend in order to continue my research in Austria.

Media Coverage

Music and Culture of WWI: Gavrilo Princip’s Footprints (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Maria Margaronis
Publication: BBC Radio 3
Date: 6/29/2014
URL: http://http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b047wshs.html

Empires Crumble, in series: Terror Through Time (Media Coverage)
Author(s): Fergal Keane
Publication: BBC Radio 4
Date: 10/10/2013
Abstract: BBC Radio 4 documentary
URL: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03c4ggb

Associated Products

Yugoslav Eulogies: The Footprints of Gavrilo Princip (Article)
Title: Yugoslav Eulogies: The Footprints of Gavrilo Princip
Author: Paul Miller
Abstract: While scholars have intensively studied Yugoslavia’s weaknesses and dissolution (both in the interwar and post-World War II eras) from political and economic perspectives, there has been less work on the issue of cultural cohesion so crucial to Yugoslavism (the Yugoslav idea) as it was conceived and developed in the nineteenth century and elaborated upon during World War I. In particular, there has been little attempt to interrogate the long-term (1918–today) discursive construction of Yugoslav identity by means of collective memory—that is, the selectively shared stories people tell about themselves in order to give meaning to the ‘nation,’ a sense of belonging to the ‘national culture.’ And yet from the moment Yugoslavia was created, ordinary Yugoslavists began constructing the Sarajevo assassination as a heroic narrative of opposition and liberation that transcended the particularist identities of ethnicity, nation, religion, and history. How did the different Yugoslav regimes and post-Yugoslav political elites respond to these efforts to shape a collective cultural memory around Gavrilo Princip’s political murder of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire? What can the various manifestations of this memory and official attitudes towards it tell us about the Yugoslav national project writ large? These are the main themes addressed in my paper.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5195/cbp.2014.194
Primary URL Description: Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Secondary URL: https://carlbeckpapers.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/cbp/issue/archive
Secondary URL Description: Archives of The Carl Beck Papers
Access Model: open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: The Carl Beck Papers in Russian and East European Studies
Publisher: University Library System of the University of Pittsburgh

Yugoslav Eulogies: The Footprints of Gavrilo Princip (Article)
Title: Yugoslav Eulogies: The Footprints of Gavrilo Princip
Author: Paul Miller
Abstract: While scholars have intensively studied Yugoslavia’s weaknesses and dissolution (both in the interwar and post-World War II eras) from political and economic perspectives, there has been less work on the issue of cultural cohesion so crucial to Yugoslavism (the Yugoslav idea) as it was conceived and developed in the nineteenth century and elaborated upon during World War I. In particular, there has been little attempt to interrogate the long-term (1918–today) discursive construction of Yugoslav identity by means of collective memory—that is, the selectively shared stories people tell about themselves in order to give meaning to the ‘nation,’ a sense of belonging to the ‘national culture.’ And yet from the moment Yugoslavia was created, ordinary Yugoslavists began constructing the Sarajevo assassination as a heroic narrative of opposition and liberation that transcended the particularist identities of ethnicity, nation, religion, and history. How did the different Yugoslav regimes and post-Yugoslav political elites respond to these efforts to shape a collective cultural memory around Gavrilo Princip’s political murder of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire? What can the various manifestations of this memory and official attitudes towards it tell us about the Yugoslav national project writ large? These are the main themes addressed in my paper.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://issuu.com/institute_for_human_sciences/docs/iwmpost_114
Primary URL Description: IWMpost website
Access Model: open access
Format: Magazine
Periodical Title: IWMpost (Magazine of the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen/Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna)
Publisher: Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen

Jugoszláv dicshimnuszok: Gavrilo Princip lábnyomai” [Yugoslav Eulogies] (Article)
Title: Jugoszláv dicshimnuszok: Gavrilo Princip lábnyomai” [Yugoslav Eulogies]
Author: Paul Miller
Abstract: While scholars have intensively studied Yugoslavia’s weaknesses and dissolution (both in the interwar and post-World War II eras) from political and economic perspectives, there has been less work on the issue of cultural cohesion so crucial to Yugoslavism (the Yugoslav idea) as it was conceived and developed in the nineteenth century and elaborated upon during World War I. In particular, there has been little attempt to interrogate the long-term (1918–today) discursive construction of Yugoslav identity by means of collective memory—that is, the selectively shared stories people tell about themselves in order to give meaning to the ‘nation,’ a sense of belonging to the ‘national culture.’ And yet from the moment Yugoslavia was created, ordinary Yugoslavists began constructing the Sarajevo assassination as a heroic narrative of opposition and liberation that transcended the particularist identities of ethnicity, nation, religion, and history. How did the different Yugoslav regimes and post-Yugoslav political elites respond to these efforts to shape a collective cultural memory around Gavrilo Princip’s political murder of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire? What can the various manifestations of this memory and official attitudes towards it tell us about the Yugoslav national project writ large? These are the main themes addressed in my paper.
Year: 2014
Primary URL: http://ketezer.hu/2015/05/jugoszlav-dicshimnuszok/#footnote-13937-1
Primary URL Description: journal website
Access Model: open access
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: 2000: Irodalmi és társadalmi havi lap [2000: Social and Literary Monthly]
Publisher: 2000: Irodalmi és társadalmi havi lap [2000: Social and Literary Monthly]

Compromising Memory: The Site of the Sarajevo Assassination (Article)
Title: Compromising Memory: The Site of the Sarajevo Assassination
Author: Paul B. Miller
Abstract: Overview of nearly a century of memory at the site of the Sarajevo assassination.
Year: 2007
Primary URL: https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/333-compromising-memory-the-site-the-sarajevo-assassination
Primary URL Description: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, East European Studies, Meeting Report “Series #333”
Access Model: open access
Format: Other
Periodical Title: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, East European Studies, Meeting Report “Series #333”
Publisher: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars

Yugoslav Eulogies: The Footprints of Gavrilo Princip (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: Yugoslav Eulogies: The Footprints of Gavrilo Princip
Author: Paul Miller
Abstract: While scholars have intensively studied Yugoslavia’s weaknesses and dissolution (both in the interwar and post-World War II eras) from political and economic perspectives, there has been less work on the issue of cultural cohesion so crucial to Yugoslavism (the Yugoslav idea) as it was conceived and developed in the nineteenth century and elaborated upon during World War I. In particular, there has been little attempt to interrogate the long-term (1918–today) discursive construction of Yugoslav identity by means of collective memory—that is, the selectively shared stories people tell about themselves in order to give meaning to the ‘nation,’ a sense of belonging to the ‘national culture.’ And yet from the moment Yugoslavia was created, ordinary Yugoslavists began constructing the Sarajevo assassination as a heroic narrative of opposition and liberation that transcended the particularist identities of ethnicity, nation, religion, and history. How did the different Yugoslav regimes and post-Yugoslav political elites respond to these efforts to shape a collective cultural memory around Gavrilo Princip’s political murder of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire? What can the various manifestations of this memory and official attitudes towards it tell us about the Yugoslav national project writ large? These are the main themes addressed in my paper.
Date Range: May 15, 2014
Location: Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen (Institute for Human Sciences, Vienna, Austria)
Primary URL: http://www.iwm.at/events/event/yugoslav-eulogies
Primary URL Description: Institute calendar

1914–2014, A Retrospective from the Beginning of World War I to the Present (Public Lecture or Presentation)
Title: 1914–2014, A Retrospective from the Beginning of World War I to the Present
Abstract: Panel Discussion sponsored by the Library of Congress and SAIS Center for Transatlantic Relations in Washington, DC. I spoke on Bosnia-Herzegovina under the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the impact of the Sarajevo assassination. Gerard Toal (Virginia Tech), Paul Miller (McDaniel College) and retired US Ambassador Jacques Paul Klein discuss the territorial and ethnic conflicts that led to the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, and how Europe's great powers over-reacted, leading to "the Great War." The speakers then show how the First World War has affected the subsequent history of Europe, through the Second World War, through the Cold War, down to the present. Other presenters included Andras Simonyi, Erdal Trhulj and Jadranka Negodic.
Author: Paul Miller
Date: 09/16/2014
Location: Library of Congress (Washington, DC)
Primary URL: http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6624

Yugoslav Eulogies: The Footprints of Gavrilo Princip (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Yugoslav Eulogies: The Footprints of Gavrilo Princip
Author: Paul Miller
Abstract: While scholars have intensively studied Yugoslavia’s weaknesses and dissolution (both in the interwar and post-World War II eras) from political and economic perspectives, there has been less work on the issue of cultural cohesion so crucial to Yugoslavism (the Yugoslav idea) as it was conceived and developed in the nineteenth century and elaborated upon during World War I. In particular, there has been little attempt to interrogate the long-term (1918–today) discursive construction of Yugoslav identity by means of collective memory—that is, the selectively shared stories people tell about themselves in order to give meaning to the ‘nation,’ a sense of belonging to the ‘national culture.’ And yet from the moment Yugoslavia was created, ordinary Yugoslavists began constructing the Sarajevo assassination as a heroic narrative of opposition and liberation that transcended the particularist identities of ethnicity, nation, religion, and history. How did the different Yugoslav regimes and post-Yugoslav political elites respond to these efforts to shape a collective cultural memory around Gavrilo Princip’s political murder of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of the Austro-Hungarian Empire? What can the various manifestations of this memory and official attitudes towards it tell us about the Yugoslav national project writ large? These are the main themes addressed in my paper.
Date: 09/6/2013
Primary URL: http://http://cultcenter.net
Primary URL Description: Center for Culture and Cultural Studies (Skopje, Republic of Macedonia)
Conference Name: Cultural Memory, Centre for Culture and Cultural Studies/Balkan Network, Skopje, Republic of Macedonia

Yugoslav Eulogies: Remembering the Sarajevo Assassination (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: Yugoslav Eulogies: Remembering the Sarajevo Assassination
Author: Paul Miller
Abstract: Remembrance of the Sarajevo assassination in Yugoslavia and the former Yugoslavia.
Date: 05/11/2012
Conference Name: Interpersonal and Intergenerational Remembering of War, Conflict and Transition; Matchpoints Seminar 2012, Aarhus University, Denmark

Le souvenir de l’attentat de Sarajevo à Sarajevo (Book Section)
Title: Le souvenir de l’attentat de Sarajevo à Sarajevo
Author: Paul Miller
Editor: Daniel Baric
Editor: Jacques Le Rider
Editor: Drago Roksandic
Abstract: Memory of the Sarajevo assassination in Sarajevo
Year: 2010
Primary URL: http://www.pur-editions.fr/detail.php?idOuv=2532
Primary URL Description: Presses Universitaires de Rennes
Access Model: subscription/purchase only
Publisher: Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes
Book Title: Mémoire et histoire en Europe centrale et orientale
ISBN: 978-2-7535-122

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