The Caucasus: An Introduction

A renowned expert, Thomas de Waal provides a crash course on the history of the. A required reading for those seeking to learn more about the region. Mark Temnycky Nonresident Fellow, Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center

I'm giving the book itself four stars, but only two stars for the many editing errors, so that comes out to three stars. As far as the book itself, it is an excellent history of the Caucasus troubles, and is not too dense to read. I have been to many of the countries in the Caucasus, including Georgia and Armenia, and wish I had read the book before. It does provide excellent insight, although the past and current history of the Caucasus can be summed up by saying "every ethnic group hates every other ethnic group". It's sad and unnecessary. My big compliant is that there seems to have been virtually no editing on this book. There are misspelled words, missing words, extra words in sentences, etc. Why is this important? Because if the writer wants to be taken seriously as a creditable source of information, the book should not appear to be written by a fifteen year old. I hope that this is corrected in the next printing. It's unprofessional and unacceptable for a book of this caliber to be so sloppily edited.

de Waal writes well and provides a thorough background to present day ( - 3 years and update please with a Silk Road perspective) grounding on a complex region with internal and intra region complexities that mirror politics on the larger stage. Nuanced, unbiased and we'll researched. Great for a traveler who wants to go deeper and for the inquisitive who just wanna know more.

The mighty range of the Caucasus mountains runs between the Black Sea and the Caspian. For millennia numerous peoples took refuge in its fastnesses, to the north and to the south. Others inhabited the valleys and plains. De Waal’s book covers only those who lived on the south side, the people who today live in the modern nations of Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan. Though those three nations may be dominated by the eponymous groups, there are many others—for example, Abkhaz, Ajarians, Ossetians, Lezgin, Kurds, and Svans. After a quick general history, the book turns to the development and political history of the three modern states---during Tsarist times; in that brief period between 1917 and 1921 when three weak, disorganized states emerged and were overwhelmed by the Bolsheviks; under Communism; and finally after the end of the Soviet Union. If you read newspapers or serious news magazines over the last 30 years, you no doubt ran across articles dealing with all these countries and their multitude of quarrels---among themselves and with their neighbors, Russia, Turkey and Iran. Names like Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh, Nakhichevan, Ajaria, Gamsamkhurdia, Shevarnadze, Ter-Petrosian, Kocharian, Aliev and a lot of others that don’t fly off the tongues of Westerners flew across the pages and often disappeared with no trace. Owing to the fickle attention spans of Euro-American news media, you probably were left wondering at times. What the _______ is going on? You did not, without some independent research, find out. For an antidote to this lack of knowledge, I advise you to get hold of this excellent book. It is extremely well-written, avoids national bias, and covers the ground in such a way that you’ll feel that at last you have some idea of the politics and problems of the South Caucasus. The author, a British journalist, obviously knows the area well. In addition to the reportage on the wars, the political struggles, and overall problems, he provides numerous riffs on such subjects as Lermontov (famous 19th century Russian writer), Rustaveli Avenue (the Ginza of Tbilisi, Georgia’s capital), how Georgian was Stalin?, Baku jazz, Shusha (the old capital of Nagorno-Karabakh), the Greeks of Abkhazia, and many other, perhaps esoteric, but highly interesting subjects. Several good maps are included, so are a bunch of typos.

I appreciate that the author is writing an "introduction" to the region but some historical events are treated so glibly and the author's analysis of them is so simple that the overall message of a subchapter reads historically false at its worst or incomplete at its best. The author does recognize in the introduction that it's hard not to offend readers when covering the region; and, in trying to minimize offense with a so-called "balanced" view likely offends most everyone. When faced with complexity, the author/journalist should strive to illuminate the complex not simplify it for clarity. If the task proves too difficult, then perhaps it’s more honourable to not write the book. My conclusion is that this book adds to the obscurity of the region and it would have been better if this book hadn’t been written. My only recompense, should the author take offense at this review, is to encourage him to try harder next time. I commend the author's readable style but I'd still leave, at lease this edition, to the dustbin.

I learned a lot about this mysterious remote part of the world. Now I have a better understanding of the news.

Decent introduction overall, but dotted with inexcusable factual inaccuracies.

Una buena introducción a la política y la geopolítica del Cáucaso.

I love the writing style :) So interesting!

great book, easy and quick to read.

I bought this after a fantastic holiday taking in Georgia, Armenia and Kyiv. We had some great guides but it was clear that there was far more to it. Their views were inevitably coloured by their life experiences which were absolutely fascinating but I wanted to know more about how the area had evolved as well as the broader political picture. Suffice it to say that it is complex and ever changing. Most of the books I found on Amazon were quite old, but when I discovered that this one was being updated (late 2018) I placed an advance order immediately. The fluid politics of the region mean that it is inevitably out of date already, but it covers complex topics in a balanced and straightforward manner. He is not afraid to point out when poor decisions have led to dire consequences, but this is presented in a factual way without apportioning blame. It's a relatively easy read and you will come away more knowledgeable than you started. You will not get this depth of information or balance when you visit, but reading it after coming home meant that things did start to click into place. Coming from a relatively stable island state, it's difficult to appreciate the ever-changing borders and the feelings of ethnic groups that have been displaced or who believe they have rights to certain lands held by others. Definitely worth buying if you have any interest in the post-soviet world.

This is a truly wonderful book and a deeply inciteful insight into the tragic history of this inspiring part of the world. I’m just so glad I read it before travelling to the Caucasus not least because it enabled me to know when I was listening to propaganda and when it was fact. Nonetheless I would strongly advise anyone thinking of travelling to the area to hasten to make a booking! Stunningly beautiful, lovely(but too much) food and wonderful people who for generations have been so badly traduced by the empires around them and their own academic and political leadership.