A History of Inner Asia | 
| Author: Svat Soucek
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $80.00
Buy New: $66.59
You Save: $13.41 (17%)
New (8) Used (6) from $66.59
Avg. Customer Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 2690095
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.3 x 1
ISBN: 0521651697
Dewey Decimal Number: 958
EAN: 9780521651691
ASIN: 0521651697
Publication Date: March 28, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new item. Over 4 million customers served. Order now. Selling online since 1995. Few left in stock - order soon. Code: C20080923192238B
|
| Also Available In:
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
This accessible introduction to Inner Asia traces its history from the arrival of Islam, through the various dynasties to the Russian conquest. The contemporary focus rests on the seven countries that make up present-day Eurasia: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Sinkiang and Mongolia. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, renewed interest in these countries has prompted considerable debate. While a divergent literature has evolved, no comprehensive survey of the region exists. This book will fill the gap and become indispensable for anyone studying or visiting the area.
Book Description
An accessible introduction to Inner Asia traces its history from the arrival of Islam, through the various dynasties to the Russian conquest. The contemporary focus rests on the seven countries which make up present-day Eurasia: Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Sinkiang and Mongolia. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, renewed interest in these countries has prompted considerable debate. While a divergent literature has evolved, no comprehensive survey of the region exists. This book will fill the gap and become indispensable for anyone studying or visiting the area.
|
| Customer Reviews:
 A reasonable book for Intro to Inner Asian history April 15, 2008
This book covers great span of history and geography, it is reasonable intro text to Inner Asian history and will give you a sense of everything, but it tries to cover too much and gives nothing in-depth.
 a very confusing book for beginner May 8, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
There are few shortcomings of this book: needs more and better maps (unless you know Inner Asia geography very well), needs a glossary (too much foreign terms, needs a timetable (the author tend to go back and fore a lot). This book is not for beginner, I really hope he can write something less confuse.
Disappointing treatment of an interesting subject October 23, 2006
7 out of 11 found this review helpful
By "Inner Asia" is meant the area corresponding roughly to modern Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and the Chinese province of Xinjiang. The history of this region is fascinating, and little known in the West. There is a clear need for books about it.
Unfortunately, "A History of Inner Asia" does not meet this need. It purports to cover nearly 1400 years, from the emergence of Islam to the present, but this coverage is very unbalanced - about a third of the book is devoted to the last 100 years. The challenge of a history covering such a diverse and complex region is to weave the threads into a coherent account. The author has not met this challenge. A lot of detail has been amassed between the covers of this book, but writing good history requires more than amassing detail. Consequently, the book does not engage the reader's interest.
The author displays a surprising failure of scholarship in his treatment of Chinese names. Instead of adopting the standard Pinyin transliterations, he uses an arbitrary mixture of transliterations, apparently at random. Mixed with Pinyin (Beijing, Xian) we find old Wade-Giles spellings (Hsi-Hsia, Hsuan-Tsang) and old British spellings derived from Cantonese pronunciation (Sinkiang). Sometimes the same Chinese character is represented in different ways on the same page! (Peiting, Beijing - the first syllable of both place-names is the Chinese character for "north"). Bei Lu is in Pinyin on page 266, but spelt "Peilu" in the index. Some of the transliterations do not follow any system; for example in Appendix 2, where the Chinese for "autonomous region" (zizhi qu, in pinyin) is rendered as "zeji chu". The author seems to have made it up, or possibly transliterated into the Latin alphabet from some Cyrillic transliteration.
 A modern fascinating account June 15, 2005
16 out of 17 found this review helpful
This book follows the history of 'inner asia' from the time of the Islamic conquests to modern day independence. The area covered is the steppe lands from Mongolia to the former soviet republics(Kazakhstan, Uzbek, Tajik, Turkmen and Kyrgiz) as well as the Sinkiang(Xinxiang/Uiguer) province of China. It covers with wonderful fluid writing the history from the original linguistic families of Turkic speaking tribesmen to the arrival of Islam. We see how the people were once Buddhist and how Arabic script colonized them only to be repalced by Cyrillic in modern times. We are told of the the story of the Kok Turks, and CHinese expansion into Inner and outer mongolia. Various dynasties are covered, including Persian influence and the lands of Bokhara and Khiva. The arrival of the Mongols is explained and the decline through to Soviet expansion
Most fascinating is the account brings us up to the modern day, explaining the Communist state of Mongolia and the Sovietization of Central Asia, including the various autonomous 'nations' the Soviets created for groups like the Bakshir nomads and other peoples of the Steppe, preserving, creating and in come cases fragmenting culture.
The soviets even impressed language onto peoples, such as the Uzbeks, giving alphabets and coercing natives. Modern times has seen war, famine, dictatorship, Chinese encroachment, Suppression, and of course Islamization of the region. Today seperatist movements are encoruaged in China and Pan-Turk ideals are pipe dreams.
This is inner asia, a fascinatign region of diverse culture and history, fascinting linguistic ties and a history that must be told and read. A Highly readable book about an amazing place and a wonderful people. Anyone interested in the world, in history or new ideas will enjoy this read.
Seth J. Frantzman
|
|
|
