Inside Central Asia

From a critically acclaimed author a comprehensive history of the part of the world currently making headlines The former Soviet republics of Central Asia comprise a sprawling, politically pivotal, densely populated, and richly cultured area of the world that is nonetheless poorly represented in libraries and mainstream media Since their political incorporation in Stalin Read Inside Central Asia – kino-fada.fr I cannot believe I finally finished this damn book Now I just have to carry it around for the rest of the summer.This book reads like a history book for the class I never took in college That is a compliment at times It s very thorough and it achieved one of my goals in reading it understanding at a deeper level the five central Asian countries the ones that end in stan that were formerly part of the Soviet Union To boot, Hiro adds chapters on Turkey and Iran as the two outside non Russian cultural and political influences on the region, which both help broaden the context of the five republics This book reads like a history book for the class I never took in college That is a compliment at times It s very thorough and it achieved one of my goals in reading it understanding at a deeper level the five central Asian countries the ones that end in stan that were formerly part of the Soviet Union To boot, Hiro adds chapters on Turkey and Iran as the two outside non Russian cultural and political influences on the region, which both help broaden the context of the five republics and also are useful primers on those countries as well That said, this book is very dry, going through the thousand year history of each place Hiro also includes the Russianized version of all the names, plus the date of a sovereign s reign, or a person s birth date It s a little overwhelming Add to that the fact that there are a staggering number of typos and other errors including a page of text virtually repeating a previ...A well informed book on the recent history of Central Asia and two of its neighbors with historical ties If you are at all interested in the Tajik Civil War, this book is one of the best books I have found on the subject in English A must read for anyone interested in the regionDespite being a long time fan of much of Hiro s work, I found this one to be a densely packed and ultimately confusing attempt at writing a history writ large of this ultimately confusing region Partly, it is not Hiro s fault Central Asia is very complex and confusing and I don t think it lends itself well to the kind of interstitial and universal history that Hiro is attempting here Structurally, though, and this is Hiro s mark on the work, it could ve been handled a lot better The entire h Despite being a long time fan of much of Hiro s work, I found this o...I was looking for a general book about Central Asia This book did give me a general overview of the region However It is filled with spelling and grammatical errorsThe introduction and conclusion are essent...Typos asideas well as the slightly superfluous chapters on Turkey and Iranthis was an amazing read Highly recommended I finished the 400 pages in about 2 days.As the title deservedly implies, the book provides a definitive political and cultural history of the Central Asian republics of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey and Iran The last two are not central Asian in geography, but shares the same cultural mindset as those who are These states passed through three distinct phases from medieval tribalism to the present time Pre revolutionary Tsars forcefully annexed the states that underwent a radical change under t As the title deservedl...Although this book is coined as a Political and Cultural History of Central Asian countries with the addition of Turkey and Iran , I found this book to be focused heavily on the political and historical aspects of these countries The preface and introduction provided an in depth account of the social and political conditions during Sovietization and the resulting turmoil after the collapse of ...Central Asia had been on my bucket list of reading and travel for a very long time and this book was a good introduction to the region before I moved to some of the other books on Kazakhstan.I liked the way the introduction is how the names surnames were derived, their background and then going country by country Turkey and Iran looked a little out of place, but that is probably my way of looking at the Stans Would recommend the book for anyone who needs to have an overview of the central a Central Asia had been on my bucket list of reading and travel for a very long time and this book was a good introduction to the region before I moved to some of the other books on Kazakhstan.I liked t...Overall a very interesting and informative overview of the political history of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan from the 1950s onwards The differences and similarities between the regimes are highlighted intelligently, as are the roles of competing powers Russia, USA, Iran, Turkey and China and the war in Afghanistan Main themes include the transition to market democracy autocrats playing lip service to democracy tug of war between nationalism and Islamism corruption a Overall a very interesting and informative overview of the political history of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan from the 1950s onwards The differences and similarities between the regimes are highlighted intelligently, as are the roles of competing powers Russia, USA, Iran, Turkey and China and the war in Afghanistan Main themes...

• English
• 14 September 2017
Dilip Hiro
• Hardcover
• 448 pages
• 159020221X
• Dilip Hiro
• Inside Central Asia