The book is famously controversial for its revisionist approach to World War II casualties in the Balkans. It is often cited in discussions regarding: Casualty Statistics:

Franjo Tuđman’s (Wastelands of Historical Reality), first published in 1989, is a dense and controversial "treatise on the history and philosophy of violence". It remains a central, though deeply polarized, pillar of modern Croatian political and intellectual history. Philosophical and Historical Core

Tuđman questioned the widely accepted figure of 6 million Jewish victims of the Holocaust, suggesting the number was likely closer to 4 million, a claim frequently labeled as revisionist.