"Visitors to Albania typically arrive at the modern Mother Teresa airport in the capital city of Tirana. A thirty-minute taxi ride brings one to Skanderbeg Square, the heart of the metropolis of some 850,000. Twenty-three miles from the coast on a lowland plain underneath mount Dajti to the east, modern Tirana is, on the surface, just another Balkan capital choked with traffic, shoddily constructed apartment buildings, cafes and restaurants - overwhelmed by the modern. Yet, in and around the city it is still possible to at least catch a glimpse of the remnants of some of the different civilizations which have over the centuries contributed to the creation of the modern Albanian state and nation"-- Provided by publisher.

The space and time of Albanian history --The Albanians in the Middle Ages, 500-1500 -- The Albanians under Ottoman Rule : the classic period of Arnavutluk, 1500-1800 -- Ottoman Arnavutluk in crisis, 1800-1912 -- Arnavutluk to Albania : the triumph of Albanianism, 1912-1924 -- Interwar Albania: the rise of authoritarianism, 1925-1939 -- The Second World War and the establishment of the Communist regime, 1939-1944 -- Albania's Stalinist dictatorship, 1944-1989 -- The struggle to establish a democracy since 1989.