The Caucasus

Name: The Caucasus
Author: Thomas de Waal
ISBN: 0195399765

by Thomas de Waal

Contextualizes recent Russia/Georgia clash through an accessible history of the region in modern times. Thomas De Waal is a noted expert on the region, having written two acclaimed books on it: "Black Garden" and "Chechnya." In this well-researched book, he makes the case that while the Caucasus is often treated as a sub-plot in the history of Russia, or as a mere gateway to Asia, the five-day war in Georgia, which flared into a major international crisis in 2008, proves this is a combustible region, whose inner dynamics and history deserve a much more complex appreciation. In The Caucasus, de Waal reveals that South Caucasus : Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, and their many smaller regions, enclaves, and breakaway entities, is a fascinating distinct world.…

Recommended by

Per Gahrton

"He’s a good journalist too. Not the same as Goltz – perhaps more analytical. He’s been at it a long time around the Caucasus, and doing a newsletter that still appears on the web every week about Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia. It’s the kind of news you don’t find in the big media – everyday news and political news. He summarises in this book what he knows about these three countries. It’s more or less a textbook. If you don’t know anything about them and you want to have the basic knowledge before you go there, then you should absolutely read this book. You get the politics and all the problems and analysis."

Georgia and the Caucasus · fivebooks.com