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 Black
Sea
By Neal Ascherson
Published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York, 1995, 306
pages, softcover
The Germans from Russia Heritage Collection is pleased to provide
this outstanding book, Black Sea by Neal Ascherson.
Synopsis of book
Ascherson examines different aspects of the Black Sea region: "its
peoples, its archaeology, its history, its ecology. The account
follows an explorer's path north and east around the Black Sea coast,
and, chronologically, from the seventh century B.C. to the last
decade of the twentieth century." (New Repubic) Bibliography.
Index.
From the Publisher This strikingly original book is about
place and history - about the
universe of the Black Sea, from Jason and the Golden Fleece to the
fall of Communism and the new world disorder. As Neal Ascherson
shows in a colorful, learned, and surprising chronicle, the Black
Sea has been a decisive "personality" in the history of
Europe and Asia; his exploration of the myths and realities surrounding
it reveals why it is still so alluring - and important - today.
Book reviews
From Nader Mousavizadeh - The New Republic
A travel book that never stoops to the banal or quotidian, a skeptical
work of history that marvels at history's ironies, {this} is one
of the most original works on the tangled skein of identity and
nationality to have emerged from the recent ruins of nationalism's
holy wars. Ascherson's subject is the Black Sea in all its reflections.
. . . It is by no means an exhaustive history of that vast and complex
region, nor does it purport to be. Quietly, unambitiously, Ascherson
tells a set of Black Sea stories, which together form a unique narrative
of 'the interplay of circumstances,' of the hybrids of culture and
ethnicity, of the irrepressible links between ages and peoples.
From Library Journal
The Black Sea has been the stage of human history since the times
of the Bible. Owing to communism's domination in modern times, little
about the area has been known to Western readers for decades. Ascherson
(The Polish August, Viking, 1982) opens up that world once again,
and it is an exciting one. The body of water itself is the destination
of five major European and Asian rivers, including the Danube; it
is kidney-shaped, 630 miles wide, and 330 miles long; the Crimean
Peninsula projects from the north. Various cultures have lent it
a wide array of history, politics, religion, language, and tradition.
Black Sea is not a travel guide but an entertaining, informative
book about the area and its people. The work has an excellent chronology,
bibliography, and index but lacks crucial maps. For general and
informed readers.-Melinda Stivers Leach, Precision Editorial Svcs.,
Wondervu, Col.
From Stephen Brook - New Statesman & Society
Ascherson has travelled exhaustively, read deeply, pondered hard.
As a consequence Black Sea is stimulating and eye-opening. But the
book requires a bit of a struggle. Shorn of narrative structure,
it reads like a series of parentheses and excursions. A brief opening
look at the sea's threatened ecology is only resumed in the final
chapter, while the rest remains shorebound. A trip to Odessa leads,
for example, into a long digression about Adam Mickiewicz and other
Polish exiles in the city. All this is interesting enough, but essentially
tangential. The past is exalted at the expense of the present. Thebook
comes to life most readily when we meet obsessive Cossacks, dwindling
Lazi, the ministers of the new but impoverished Abkhazi state, and
the Russian and Ukrainian archaeologists and oceanographers struggling
to continue their researches after their budgets and salaries evaporated
overnight.
Black Sea
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