Jedni grade, drugi razgrađuju: Mir i red u svijetu

The book Some Build, Others Destroy: Peace and Order in the World is a collection of political and biographical essays dedicated to the most influential statesmen, religious leaders and political figures of the first half of the 20th century. The work is conceived as a series of separate contributions written by various Croatian authors, each of which deals with a prominent historical figure and his influence on contemporary events.

The book begins with an account of Pope Pius X, written by Andrija Živković, and continues with texts on Éamon de Valera (Josip Andrić), Portuguese statesman António de Oliveira Salazar (Luka Perinić), Spanish general Francisco Franco (Ivo Bogdan), Italian leader Benito Mussolini (Petar Grgec), German Chancellor Adolf Hitler (Andrija Živković) and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin (Fr. Dr. Bonifacije Perović).

The work seeks to present political, ideological and social forces that shaped the world immediately before the outbreak of World War II. Through biographical accounts and political analyses, different models of state governance, attitudes towards religion, social order and national issues, and their impact on international relations are examined. Special attention is paid to the conflict between democratic, authoritarian, fascist, nationalist and communist ideas that characterized European politics between the two world wars.

As a publication of the Jeronim Library, the book was written from a Catholic and conservative intellectual environment and reflects the views of a part of the Croatian public at the time on leading world figures and political processes. Today it represents a valuable document of political journalism of the late interwar period and an interesting testimony to the way in which the most important events and figures of the modern world were interpreted in Croatia in 1939.