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Black Sea
by Neal Ascherson
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Hill and Wang (1996-09-30)
ISBN: 0809015935
EAN: 9780809015931
Dewy Decimal #: 947
Paperback: 320 pages
Edition: 1st Amer.
SKU: 08080149
Condition: Like New As issued n
Comments: Paperback. Like new condition with no markings and no creases to spine or cover. Very slight wear to cover. Near fine copy.
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for HistoryIn this study of the fateful encounters between Europe and Asia on the shores of a legendary sea, Neal Ascherson explores the disputed meaning of community, nationhood, history, and culture in a region famous for its dramatic conflicts. What makes the Back Sea cultures distinctive, Ascherson agrues, is the way their comonent parts came together over the millennia to shape unique communities, languages, religions, and trade. As he shows with skill and persuasiveness, Black Sea patterns in the Caucasus, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Turkey, and Greece have linked the peoples of Europe and Asia together for centuries.
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Amazon.com Review
In a colorful, learned and wholly original chronicle, Neal Ascherson shows us the Black Sea and its place in the history of Europe and Asia, from Jason and the Golden Fleece to the fall of Communism and the new world disorder. In his exploration of the myths and realities surrounding this remarkable region, where ancient cultures collided and modern states - Russia, Turkey, Romania, Greece, and Caucasus - mingle, he discovers that the meanings of community, nationhood, and cultural independence are both fierce and disturbingly uncertain.
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Customer Reviews
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An absolute gem
Rating  (5)
Date: 2007-04-16
2 out of 2 customers found this reveiw helpful
Black Sea is a gem of a book: it is a wonderfully written, sophisticated combination of travelogue and history by a fair-minded humanist. In my opinion, it stands with Claudio Magris's Danube as among the best books of its type. If you are interested in the Black Sea, I recommend this book. Even if you're not, however, I suspect that on trying Ascherson's prose, you will be... I have given five intelligent people I know copies as presents: all have enjoyed it immensely.
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Historian
Rating  (1)
Date: 2007-03-09
0 out of 11 customers found this reveiw helpful
The book is an absolute disgust. Has NOTHING to do with the reality,
misrepresents facts in every single chapter. Not worth reading, just a waste of time. Author should familiarize himself with the basic facts before writing on the subject. Very unprofessional and poorly written.
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A magnificent book
Rating (5)
Date: 2003-01-03
12 out of 13 customers found this reveiw helpful
Part travel book, part history, part natural history, this is a miscellany of fascinating stories about a fascinating region woven together into a single, tight narrative. There's a great deal of learning lightly worn and tremendous technical skill involved in the organization and writing. Those reviewers who criticize it for not conforming to a standard template have a point, but what they're really complaining about is its originality.
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Travels in a tattered Tartary
Rating  (3)
Date: 2001-06-25
8 out of 10 customers found this reveiw helpful
The style is journalistic which makes it easy and enjoyable to read. The author can tell a story convincingly and he tells many. The subject matter is extremely exotic for an American reader. I have no way to know how reliable this author is as a historian. I am always suspicious of first-person journalistic history. Unlike other readers, I enjoyed the bits about Poland. But I think he is at his best in the lengthy ancient history parts. The best thing I can say about this book is it left me wanting to learn more.
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A lovely book
Rating (5)
Date: 2001-03-30
16 out of 17 customers found this reveiw helpful
This is a bold and imaginative look at an area critical to the development of Western culture.Ascherson takes us on a remarkable tour through geography and history, and one comes away with much of the excitement of a real traveller. If the book stumbles on occasion I think it should be forgiven given the complexities that the author is willing to address (and the remarkably few stumbles that he has made. I particularly enjoyed Ascherson taking us more or less up to the present, as the spectre of modern environmental collapse joins the never-ending wars whose origins become more understandable after one has read this book. I wish it were longer, I wish there were more obvious references to take us further once we were done, but this is a real gem even if you never get east of Long Island Sound.
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