A Stranger, with us and for us: Rice in Serbian national identity (reflections on the book by Uroš V. Šuvaković “R. A. Rice. Neutrality is impossible in the face of crime”)
This article analyzes the figure of Rudolf Archibald Reiss within Serbian national self-consciousness through a critical examination of Uroš V. Šuvaković’s monograph “R. A. Reiss. Neutrality Is Impossible in the Face of Crime.” The relevance of the study is linked to the growing scholarly interest in Reiss in the context of memory politics, national identity formation, and the reassessment of Serbia’s historical experience in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The paper examines the interdisciplinary framework employed by Šuvaković, which combines sociological, political science, and historical-analytical perspectives, enabling an interpretation of Reiss’s legacy not only as forensic documentation of war crimes during the First World War but also as a source for analyzing political mentality and broader social transformations. The novelty of the research lies in reconstructing Reiss as an intellectual figure situated at the intersection of scientific expertise and public discourse, as well as in evaluating the sociological interpretation of interwar Serbian society presented in the monograph. Particular attention is devoted to issues of international law, the ethics of warfare, the role of intellectual elites, and the transformation of educational institutions, alongside the analysis of Reiss’s critique of political culture and social practices. The findings indicate that revisiting Reiss’s legacy provides analytical tools for understanding persistent patterns of political thought and contemporary debates on national identity in Serbia. The article concludes that Šuvaković’s monograph contributes to the institutionalization of Reiss’s legacy within academic and public discourse, positioning it as a significant subject of interdisciplinary research and as an element of cultural memory.
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