Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia - Softcover

Rayfield, Donald

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1789140595 ISBN 13: 9781789140590

Publisher: Reaktion Books, 2019

Synopsis

Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, Georgia is a country of rainforests and swamps, snow and glaciers, and semi-arid plains. It has ski resorts and mineral springs, monuments and an oil pipeline. It also has one of the longest and most turbulent histories in the Christian or Near Eastern world, but no comprehensive, up-to-date account has been written about this little-known country—until now. Remedying this omission, Donald Rayfield accesses a mass of new material from recently opened archives to tell Georgia’s absorbing story.

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.

About this title

About the Author:

Donald Rayfield is professor emeritus of Russian and Georgian in the Department of Russian, Queen Mary, University of London. Among his many books, he is the author of The Literature of Georgia: A History and Stalin and His Hangmen: The Tyrant and Those Who Killed for Him as well as editor-in-chief of the immense Comprehensive Georgian-English Dictionary.

Review:

“Rayfield’s Edge of Empires is a wonderful history of Georgia, lifting the lid on that country's torrid, rambunctious past (and present). Impeccably researched, limpidly written, and full of insight.” (William Boyd Guardian, "Books of the Year")

“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)

“[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)

“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")

“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 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)

2013 Outstanding Academic Title (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)

About this edition

• Publisher: Reaktion Books
• Publication date: 2019
• ISBN 10: 1789140595
• ISBN 13: 9781789140590
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 528