Biography in the Context of the Challenges of the Short Twentieth Century

Abstract

Aleksandar Nikezić. Dobrila Glavinić Knezmilojković. Aleksinac: Centar za kulturu i umetnost „Aleksinac“, 2025. 195 pp. ISBN - 978-86-82648-24-6.

Dobrila Glavinić Knezmilojković was born in 1900 and died in 1987, which means that she experienced all the challenges of the turbulent, as Eric Hobsbawm calls it, short 20th century and the age of extremes. She survived the First and Second World Wars, lived in two kingdoms and one socialist state. She witnessed numerous historical events, the consequences of which she felt on her own skin since the beginning of the First World War. The curator of the Local History Museum in Aleksinac, Aleksandar Nikezić, took on the task of researching this rich legacy and her biography, and presented the results of the research in a richly illustrated and documented monographic publication. Based on the biography of Dobrila Glavinić Knezmilojković, one can see several aspects of social development and cultural and political trends of the 20th century. She points to the progressive role of a thin layer of citizens who were aware of the need for modernization and enlightenment. She belonged to a small and significant group of female students who were sent to study abroad and brought new views, ideas, lifestyles and ways of governing.