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Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia Paperback – March 11, 2019
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Beginning with the first intimations of the existence of Georgians in ancient Anatolia and ending with the volatile presidency of Mikheil Saakashvili, Rayfield deals with the country’s internal politics and swings between disintegration and unity, and divulges Georgia’s complex struggles with the empires that have tried to control, fragment, or even destroy it. He describes the country’s conflicts with Xenophon’s Greeks, Arabs, invading Turks, the Crusades, Genghis Khan, the Persian Empire, the Russian Empire, and Soviet totalitarianism. A wide-ranging examination of this small but colorful country, its dramatic state-building, and its tragic political mistakes, Edge of Empires draws our eyes to this often overlooked nation.
- Print length528 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherReaktion Books
- Publication dateMarch 11, 2019
- Dimensions6.25 x 1.6 x 9.25 inches
- ISBN-101789140595
- ISBN-13978-1789140590
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“The most comprehensive and up-to-date history of Georgia available in English. This tour de force explains why the small south Caucasus nation looks longingly to the west. A work of consummate erudition from Britain’s foremost expert on Georgian history and literature.” -- Tony Barber ― Financial Times, "Books of the Year"
“[An] ambitious and comprehensive history of a complex country. . . . Rayfield’s powerful theme is of brief periods of prosperity and security, ended by invasion, conquest, looting and despoliation.” ― Economist
“Basing his account on Georgian Chronicles, secondary literature, and archival materials as well as his in-depth knowledge of Georgian language and literature, Rayfield unleashes a whirlwind of battles, victories and defeats, invasions and annexations, dynastic arrangements, political shenanigans, and social and cultural changes . . . accompanied by a helpful chronology, detailed maps, and dynastic tables.” ― Times Literary Supplement
“Rayfield’s panoramic Edge of Empires is an impressive work that helps us understand why this south Caucasus nation of 6.4m people lodged in a hostile and unstable neighborhood looks so longingly to the West. . . . Edge of Empires is the most wide-ranging and reliable history of Georgia one is likely to find for many years to come.” ― Financial Times
Won ― Choice Magazine: CHOICE Outstanding Academic Title Awards
“Rayfield offers the most comprehensive and detailed survey history of the country of Georgia to date. Although David Marshall Lang (1962), William Edward David Allen (1932), Kalistrat Salia (1983), and Ronald Grigor Suny (1989) have all written survey histories of Georgia in the past, Rayfield’s is the only one that takes readers from the region’s prehistory all the way up to recent demonstrations in 2011 against Georgia’s current government under Mikheil Saakashvili. . . . An excellent and indispensable reference for libraries, students, researchers, and general readers. Essential.” ― Choice
“Rayfield begins with archaeology and finishes with the upheavals of 2012. Breathtaking and breathless, his book is the equivalent of watching Shakespeare’s history plays in fast-forward mode or being put on the back of a Georgian steed and charged across the mountains of Khevsureti at daredevil speed.” ― International Affairs
“In [his] depth and attention to detail of more or less the whole of recorded Georgian history, Rayfield has produced the definitive one-volume work.” ― European History Quarterly
“This is a valuable work on a country that has not generally received sufficient attention in the literature. Rayfield, an expert on the twentieth century, is an excellent choice for the volume.” ― European Review of History
“This is a courageous book. In four hundred pages or so, the author attempts to chronicle the history of Georgia and Georgians over two millennia, bringing us in its final chapter to the closing years of the Saakashvili era in 2009–10. There is no doubt that Rayfield is the man to tackle this task, a linguist and historian who speaks Georgian and has studied its culture and politics for over three decades. The text is bright, straightforward, and speckled with irony and humor. . . . Rayfield takes us through two thousand years of Georgian history with pace and efficiency.” ― Slavonic and Eastern European Review
“This book will fascinate anyone interested in the turbulent, tangled past of the Georgians.” ― Reviews in History
"Rayfield’s work will serve as the reference text for the study of Georgian history in the English-speaking world for a long time. No truly comparable book, one that begins with Georgia’s emergence from legend into history and ends with an examination of the present Georgian dream government, exists in Western scholarship." ― Asian Affairs
“Rayfield is the English-speaking world’s incomparable guide to Georgia’s language, literature, and history. He revels in its fascinating complexities and, as we read him, so do we.” -- Thomas de Waal, author of “The Caucasus: An Introduction”
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Product details
- Publisher : Reaktion Books; 1st edition (March 11, 2019)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 528 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1789140595
- ISBN-13 : 978-1789140590
- Item Weight : 2.31 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.25 x 1.6 x 9.25 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,077,999 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #418 in Turkey History (Books)
- #2,403 in Russian History (Books)
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The last time is underepresented and it could be more interesting for westerners.
All in all there is only a handful of foreigner specialists who are fluent in Georgian and are capable to write a History of Georgia.
This is a perfectly recommendable book.
While the book is well researched and well written, I found it got WAY too much into the weeds, and there was just a ridiculous amount of names and dates presented. While all of this information is certainly part of Georgia's history, it became unreadable and incomprehensible very quickly. This is a good book for historians or Georgia experts, but is too densely packed with information for anyone else.
I will be taking my first trip to Georgia next year, and was hoping for a book that would provide me (a "newbie" to the history of Georgia) a good introduction. This book was not it. I would have done better to pull up a Wikipedia page on the history of Georgia, which is exactly what I'm going to do.
To be honest, I don't need 300 pages on what happened in Georgia in the year 2000 years ago. I was hoping for information on its current political situation. This may be buried in the latter pages of the book, but I couldn't find it. I was skimming and out of patience by that time.
Top reviews from other countries
Example: Author says that the subgroup of Georgians, the Meskhs, are nowadays entirely turkish speaking. Reality: the Meskhs are entirely Georgian speaking. Not only those that live in Georgia, but also those Meskh people that live in northeast Turkey, which previously was part of Georgia, still speak Georgian. What author refers to is Meskhetian Turks. Turks that settled in Meskheti region, during ottoman rule.
The history of the Abkhazia region, an integral part of Georgia, is also inaccurately presented.
This just makes me believe that the author has only superficially researched some material, but doesn't have the full understanding of what he's writing about.