John Van Antwerp Fine Jr.

John V. A. Fine Jr. is an American historian and professor of history at the University of Michigan.

Early life and education

He was born in 1939 and grew up in Princeton, New Jersey. His father, John V.A. Fine (1903–87), was Professor of Greek History in the Classics Department of Princeton University. His mother, Elizabeth Bunting Fine, was also a classicist and taught Latin and Greek at Miss Fine’s School.

John Jr.’s undergraduate and graduate training was at Harvard University, where he studied Byzantium, the Balkans, and medieval Russia. He earned his Ph.D. in 1968 and began teaching at the University of Michigan in 1969.

Career and academic interests

His academic interests range from theology and the history of Christianity to Byzantium and the medieval and modern Balkans. His publications have become standard in the field, notably his surveys of the Medieval Balkans (1983 and 1987). He has also revolutionized the way scholars understand the Bosnian Church (first published in 1975; republished in England in 2006), showing that it was not heretical.

In 2006, Fine published a study of notions of ethnicity in Croatia from the medieval period to the nineteenth century titled When Ethnicity Did not Matter in the Balkans. In 2009, John K. Cox of North Dakota State University reviewed it largely positively, noting some points of criticism. The same year, Neven Budak of the University of Zagreb gave it a largely negative review, noting some positive aspects.

Contribution to studies on Bosnian history in light of 1990s war

He has also raised understanding of Bosnian history, working tirelessly to correct popular misconceptions, especially during the Balkan wars of the 1990s. He co-authored Bosnia and Hercegovina: A Tradition Betrayed with former student Robert J. Donia (1994), a work published in England, the US, and in Bosnian translation in war-time Sarajevo (1995). He traveled to and lectured in the besieged cities of Sarajevo and Mostar during the war.

Works

• The Bosnian Church: a new interpretation : a study of the Bosnian Church and its place in state and society from the 13th to the 15th centuries - first published in 1975, republished in 2007
• The early medieval Balkans: a critical survey from the sixth to the late twelfth century (1983)
• The late medieval Balkans: a critical survey from the late twelfth century to the Ottoman Conquest (1987)
• Bosnia-Hercegovina: A Tradition Betrayed [with Robert J. Donia] (1994)
• Cultures and Nations of Central and Eastern Europe: Essays in Honor of Roman Szporluk [Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute Publications] (2001)
• When ethnicity did not matter in the Balkans: a study of identity in pre-nationalist Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia in the medieval and early-modern periods (2005)

See also

• History of Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Bosnian Church
• History of the Balkans

Sources

• V.A. Fine Jr., John's "Michigan University Department of History" page
• John Van Antwerp Fine Jr. at Open Library

Further reading

• John Fine reviews‘Bosnia’ by Noel Malcolm· London Review of Books, 28 April 1994