Titel: | Restless Valley: Revolution, Murder, and Intrigue in the Heart of Central Asia |
Kategorie: | Zentralasien |
BuchID: | 2601 |
Autor: | Philip Shishkin |
ISBN-10(13): | 978-0300184365 |
Verlag: | Yale University Press |
Publikationsdatum: | 05/2013 |
Seitenanzahl: | 316 |
Sprache: | Englisch |
Bewertung: | |
Bild: | [ONLINE-SHOP] |
Beschreibung: |
It sounds like the stuff of a fiction thriller: two revolutions, a massacre of unarmed civilians, a civil war, a drug-smuggling highway, brazen corruption schemes, contract hits, and larger-than-life characters who may be villains . . . or heroes . . . or possibly both. Yet this book is not a work of fiction. It is instead a gripping, firsthand account of Central Asias unfolding history from 2005 to the present. Philip Shishkin, a prize-winning journalist with extensive on-the-ground experience in the tumultuous region above Afghanistans northern border, focuses mainly on Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Both nations have struggled with the enormous challenges of post-Soviet independent statehood; both became entangled in Americas Afghan campaign when U.S. military bases were established within their borders. At the same time, the region was developing into a key smuggling hub for Afghanistans booming heroin trade. Through the eyes of local participantsthe powerful and the powerlessShishkin reconstructs how Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have ricocheted between extreme repression and democratic strivings, how alliances with the United States and Russia have brought mixed blessings, and how Stalins legacy of ethnic gerrymandering incites conflict even now. |