War.com

In the summer of 1989, when Slobodan Milosevic withdrew Kosovo’s political autonomy, I was across Yugoslavia on an achingly beautiful Dalmatian island, in search of a Herald Tribune. Let me explain.

Ten years ago, a trip to the island of Brac, in what is now Croatia, meant that for the few weeks I was there, I was essentially dependent on my host, a native speaker, to interpret the world for me. There were no English-language magazines or newspapers in the town’s kiosk, nor was the...