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Balkan Ghosts: A Journey Through History
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From Robert D. Kaplan
This report was last updated 7/25/2019.
Refresh the report to view the most up-to-date data available:
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Report Info:
Note: While Amazon.com claims 200 Ratings, we counted 199 Reviews available on their site.
Note: We only analyze "reviews" and ignore one-tap "ratings".
Note: We only analyze "reviews" and ignore one-tap "ratings".
Report Card
Warn Overall Grade
FAIL
Rating Trend

FAIL
Suspicious Reviewers

WARN
Deleted Reviews

WARN
Unverified Purchases

WARN
Phrase Repetition

WARN
Reviewer Participation

PASS
Word Count Comparison

PASS
Overlapping Review History

PASS
Reviewer Ease

PASS
Brand Repeats

PASS
Incentivized Reviews

Most Trusted Reviews
Informative without having a textbook, lecture feel. [Go to full review]
Jun 3, 2018
100%
TRUST
TRUST
-
Verified Purchaser
-
Take-Back Reviewer (4 deleted Reviews; avg. rating: 5.0)
-
Critical Reviewer (avg. rating: 4.0)
Least Trusted Reviews
This is probably one of the very best books on ... [Go to full review]
Nov 3, 1997
0%
TRUST
TRUST
-
Unverified Purchaser
-
One-Hit Wonder
-
Never-Verified Reviewer
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Overrepresented Participation (posted 1 Review)
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Easy Grader (avg. rating: 5.0)
Analysis Details
Fail
Rating Trend

-
- 8%
- Created over 7 days
We counted 199 reviews for this product over the span of 7,929 days, an average of 0.0 reviews per day. If these reviews were created randomly, there would be a 99.9% chance that we would see 1 or fewer reviews on any given day.
However, we see the following 7 days exceeding this threshold:In total, we found that 15 reviews were created on just 7 days. The reviews on these high volume days have rated this product an average of 4.6 while reviews from other days have rated this product an average of 3.9. Based on our statistical modeling, the discrepancy in average rating between these two groups is significant enough to believe that the difference is not due to random chance, and may indicate that there are unnatural reviews.
Fail
Suspicious Reviewers

One-Hit Wonders
21 of the 199 reviewers have only reviewed this product. While this is more One-Hit Wonders than we'd expect to see, it does not appear to have a significant impact on the overall rating.
Never-Verified Reviewers
58 of the 199 reviewers have never written a verified purchase review. The Never-Verified Reviewers have rated this product an average of 3.5 while the reviewers who have written at least one verified purchase review rated this product an average of 4.2. Based on our statistical modeling, the discrepancy in average rating between these two groups is significant enough to believe that the difference is not due to random chance, and may indicate that there are unnatural reviews.
Take-Back Reviewers
51 of the 199 reviewers have had at least one of their past reviews for another product deleted. While this is more Take-Back Reviewers than we'd expect to see, the discrepancy in ratings between the Take-Back Reviewers and reviewers who don't have any deleted reviews in their history isn't significant enough to rule out the possibility of it being due to random chance.
Warn
Deleted Reviews

We discovered a total of 4 deleted Reviews for this product, with an average rating of 5. Even though deleted reviews don't affect the average rating, the fact that action was taken to delete reviews raises some red flags about the integrity of the reviews for the product as whole.
There are a few limitations to keep in mind regarding the Deleted Reviews test:
- We don't have a magic ability to collect every single deleted review; we can only identify reviews as deleted if we collect them on one date and then notice they are no longer visible on a subsequent date.
- We have no information on reviews that were never published in the first place.
- We also don't know why these reviews were removed. It could be action from the platform, personal decision by the review author, part of an entire account closure, even some data error on our part, etc.
Warn
Unverified Purchases

110 of the 199 total reviews for this product are unverified purchases. While this is a higher percentage of unverified purchases than we'd expect to see, it does not appear to have a significant impact on the overall rating.
Unverified purchases may be the result of Kindle Unlimited readers, buyers who didn't pay full price, or reviewers who did not purchase the product at Amazon. Read more about our Unverified Purchases test.
Warn
Phrase Repetition

Reviews that contain one of these phrases are NOT necessarily devalued; read more about how this test works here.
Common Phrases in Reviews:
Show MoreShow Less
9 reviews
(4.1/5)
(4.1/5)
15 reviews
(3.9/5)
(3.9/5)
9 reviews
(4.4/5)
(4.4/5)
3 reviews
(5.0/5)
(5.0/5)
3 reviews
(5.0/5)
(5.0/5)
Common Phrases in Titles:
3 reviews
(5.0/5)
(5.0/5)
4 reviews
(4.5/5)
(4.5/5)
2 reviews
(4.5/5)
(4.5/5)
49 of the 199 total reviews for this product use substantial repetitive phrases between them. This is an excessively large percentage which may indicate unnatural reviews.
Warn
Reviewer Participation

-
- 72%
- From reviewers with an overrepresented participation
We see the following 3 participation groups with a statistically significant greater concentration than what we'd expect to see:In total, we found that 143 reviewers (or 72%) are within an overrepresented participation group. This is an excessively high number of reviewers in overrepresented participation groups.
Pass
Word Count Comparison

-
- 0%
- Have an overrepresented word count
We didn't find any review word count groups that had a statistically significant greater concentration than what we'd expect to see in this category.
Read more about our Word Count Comparison test.
Read more about our Word Count Comparison test.
Pass
Overlapping Review History

Reviewers of this product have ALSO reviewed the following products:
5% also reviewed:
The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
5% also reviewed:
Macbeth (No Fear Shakespeare) by SparkNotes
4% also reviewed:
John Adams by David McCullough
4% also reviewed:
Monsoon: The Indian Ocean and the Future of... by Robert D. Kaplan
4% also reviewed:
The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the Dreams of the... by Robert D. Kaplan
4% also reviewed:
Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault
4% also reviewed:
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the... by Steven D. Levitt
4% also reviewed:
Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
Does not include products
from the same brand
from the same brand
34 of the 199 reviewers have substantial overlapping product review history. This is within an acceptable range and it does not appear to be significantly affecting the overall rating for this product.
Pass
Reviewer Ease

The ease score is the average rating for all reviews that a given reviewer submits. The average ease score for reviewers of this product is 4, while the average ease score for reviewers in this category is 4.3.
4.0 Product's Average Ease Score
4.3 Category's Average Ease Score
Read more about our Reviewer Ease test.
Pass
Brand Repeats

Brand Repeaters
16 of the 199 reviewers have reviewed other products for this brand. This is within an acceptable range and it does not appear to be significantly affecting the overall rating for this product.
Pass
Incentivized Reviews

On Oct 3, 2016, Amazon prohibited incentivized reviews, however we still test for them since there are still millions in our dataset.
-
- 0%
- Admitted to receiving an incentive
We didn't detect any reviews that used language indicating they were incentivized.
Read more about our Incentivized Reviews test. Check out our study showing that Incentivized Reviewers are much more likely to leave a positive review.
Read more about our Incentivized Reviews test. Check out our study showing that Incentivized Reviewers are much more likely to leave a positive review.