The Black Sea: A History - Hardcover

King, Charles

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0199241619 ISBN 13: 9780199241613

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2004

Synopsis

The area from the Balkans to the Caucasus is often seen as a zone of timeless conflict, a frontier region at the meeting place of mutually antagonistic civilizations. But in this pathbreaking work, Charles King investigates the myriad of connections that have made the Black Sea more of a bridge than a boundary, linking religious communities, linguistic groups, empires, and later, nations and states.

For some parts of the world, the idea of waterways as defining elements in human history is uncontroversial. Mention the Mediterranean or the South Pacific, and images of mutual influence come to mind. Those images come less readily for the Black Sea--a region that has experienced ethnic conflict, economic collapse, and interstate rivalries over the last two decades. But in the recent past, the idea of the Black Sea as a distinct unit was self-evident. From its formation some seven or eight millennia ago to the political revolutions and environmental crisis of the late twentieth century, the sea has been a zone of interaction - sometimes cordial, sometimes conflictual--among the peoples and states around its shores.

To the ancient Greeks, the sea lay literally at the edge of the known world. In time, the growth of Greek trading colonies linked all the coasts into a web of economic relationships. In the Middle Ages, the sea was tied to the great commercial cities of Venice and Genoa. Later, the Ottomans used the region's resources to build their own empire. In the late eighteenth century, the sea was opened to foreign commerce, and the seacoasts were part of a genuinely global system of trade. After the collapse of the Russian and Ottoman empires, the coastline was carved up among a number of newly formed nation-states, with each asserting a right to a piece of the coast and a section of the coastal waters.

Today, efforts to resurrect the idea of the Black Sea as a unified region are once again on the international agenda. Based on extensive research in multiple languages, this book is an indispensable guide to the history, cultures, and politics of this fascinating sea and its future at the heart of Europe and Eurasia.

About this title

About the Author:

Charles King is Ion Ratiu Professor of Romanian Studies and Assistant Professor of Government, Georgetown University.

Review:

"Like its subject, this book is a hybrid, a mostly engaging historical narrative drawn from an array of secondary sources.... a vivid account of the Black Sea's sometimes fascinating structural characteristics.... Recommended"--Choice

"A masterful account of the ever-changing trade between the peoples and the powers of this crucial waterway."--Orlando Figes

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0199241619
• ISBN 13: 9780199241613
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304