"Elegiac, quirky, readable, deeply knowledgeable . . . The best cultural-historical introduction to that tempestuous land," the Georgian republic. (Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The Romanovs)Georgia has been called the world's most beautiful country, yet little is known about it beyond its borders. This topical and vital book by Peter Nasmyth, the "ideal chronicler" ( Literary Review) is the much-celebrated introduction to Georgia's remarkable...

Prize-winning author Michael J. Totten returns with a masterpiece of travel writing and history in this journey through thirteen nations—all but two formerly communist—just beyond the edge of the West where few casual travelers venture. His work as an independent foreign correspondent takes him deep into the field beyond the sensational headlines, from his hilariously miserable road trip through the Middle East with his best friend to Iraq, and around Eastern Europe to the Wild West of Alb...

**“Sweeping and replete with alluring detail . . . [a] haunting yet ultimately optimistic examination of the human condition as found in Romania.”—Alison Smale, The New York Times Book ReviewFrom the New York Times bestselling author Robert D. Kaplan, named one of the world’s Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine, comes a riveting journey through one of Europe’s frontier countries—and a potent examination of the forces that will determine Eur...

"The Scourge of God" tells the tale of the terrible Tartar invasion of Hungary during the reign of Bela IV. (1235-1270), when the Mongol hordes devastated Magyarland from end to end. Baron Miklos Josika (1796–1865), the Walter Scott of Hungary, was born at Torda, in Transylvania, on April 28th, 1796. While a child, he lost both his parents, and was brought up at the house and under the care of his grandmother, Anna Bornemissza, a descendant of Jokai's heroine of the sam...

"Zanna Sloniowska writes beautifully; with empathy, sensitivity, and with real political impact . . . an important new voice in Polish literature" OLGA TOKARCZUK, Nobel Prize-winning author of Flights"Remarkable, a gripping, Lvivian evocation of a city and a family across a long and painful century . . . A novel of life and survival across the ages" PHILIPPE SANDS, author of East West StreetAmid the turbul...

Srebrenica represents a dark and painful chapter in late twentieth-century European history. Here, a still unknown number of Bosnian Muslim citizens were tortured and killed in July 1995. About 8.500 deaths have so far been confirmed, but survivors say 10.701 people died as a result of the blind and racist violence of the Bosnian Serb army led by Ratko Mladic’ and mainly Serb paramilitary forces, as the Dutch UN Peacekeepers and, with them, the entire international community, stood by and ...

This is a major new study of the successor states that emerged in the wake of the collapse of the great Russian, Habsburg, Iranian, Ottoman and Qing Empires and of the expansionist powers who renewed their struggle over the Eurasian borderlands through to the end of the Second World War. Surveying the great power rivalry between the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan for control over the Western and Far Eastern boundaries of Eurasia, Alfred J. Rieber provides a new framework for...

Joseph Roth, best known as the author of the novel The Radetzky March and the nonfiction work The Wandering Jews, was one of the most seductive, disturbing, and enigmatic writers of the twentieth century. Born in 1894 in the Habsburg Empire in what is now Ukraine and dying in Paris in 1939, he was a perpetually displaced person, a traveler, a prophet, a compulsive liar, and a man who covered his tracks. Throughout the eastern borderlands of Europe, Dennis Marks explores t...

Elibron Classics. Replica of 1836 edition by Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, London.In 1835 Leitch Ritchie (1800–1865) a Scottish novelist and journalist took a trip to Russia.
He hoped to become acquainted with Modern Russia, and to be enabled to form some idea of the real progress of her civilization, in so far at least, as this is indicated in the manners of the people; at Moscow, in the heretofore capital of the Tsars, he hoped to find himself in the very heart ...

The castles and fortresses built in Transylvania represent genuine treasures and are a living proof that this land was blessed, becoming almost a fascinating attraction for the people who settled in these places, lived on them and defended them. The centuries-old magic that has reached us like a bright light from medieval times, documents, as well as archeological sites, has also enveloped us, the authors of the pages of this book.After systematic documentation in libraries and the...

From Byzantium to the Mongols to the Sultans of Rum, this acclaimed book offers an important insight into the evocative history of Turkey before the coming of Ottoman power.Turkey forms a historical bridge between Europe and Asia and as such has played a pivotal role throughout history. The rise of Constantinople and the later Ottoman Empire are well known: less well understood are developments in the three centuries in-between. What led to the decline of the Byzantine Empire and w...

Magnificent castles and legendary heroes from the age of the Hungarian-Turkish wars, second edition.Between the 15th and 17th centuries while Europe was being torn apart by religious and dynastic wars the mighty Ottoman Empire was preparing to conquer the Christian world.When they entered they found themselves blocked by staunch Hungarian resistance. Although suffering greatly, Hungarians contributed more than their fair share to the steady development of European civilizat...