In this book, Sean Homer addresses Slavoj Zizek's work in a specific political conjuncture, his political interventions in the Balkans. The charge of inconsistency and contradiction is frequently levelled at Zizek's politics, a charge he openly embraces in the name of "pragmatism." Homer argues that his interventions in the Balkans exposes the dangers of this pragmatism for the renewal of Leftist politics that he calls for. The book asses Zizek's political interventions inso far as they advance his self-proclaimed "ruthlessly radical" aims about changing the world. Homer argues the Balkans can be seen as Zizek's symptom, that element which does not fit into the system but speaks its truth and reveals what the system cannot acknowledge about itself.