Historical Dictionary of Armenia (Volume 77) (Historical Dictionaries of Europe, 77) - Hardcover

Adalian, Rouben Paul

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810860961 ISBN 13: 9780810860964

Publisher: Scarecrow Press, 2010

Synopsis

There are two Armenias: the current Republic of Armenia and historic Armenia. The modern state dates from the early 20th century. Historic Armenia was part of the ancient world and expired in the Middle Ages. Its people, however, survived, and from its residue recreated a new country. The history of the Armenians is the story of how an ancient people endured into modern times and how its culture evolved from one conceived under the influence of Mesopotamia to one redefined by the civilization of Europe.

The second edition of the Historical Dictionary of Armenia relates the turbulent past of this persistent country through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and over 200 cross-referenced dictionary entries on significant persons, events, places, organizations, and other aspects of Armenian history from the earliest times to the present.

About this title

About the Author:

Rouben Paul Adalian is Director of the Armenian National Institute (ANI), founded in 1997, and Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum of America project, in Washington, D.C.

Review:

Armenia, conquered by many, was until 1991 part of the Soviet Union. Its turbulent history includes the 1915 Armenian Genocide, the devastating 1988 earthquake, and its uneasy, sometimes hostile, relations with neighbors Turkey and Azerbaijan. This title follows the established format for the Historical Dictionaries series. Along with a new preface, it includes the one from the 2002 edition (CH, Apr'03, 40-4363). The book explains the transliteration used and provides a list of acronyms/abbreviations, a 68-page introduction, and a chronology (ca. 1500 BCE to October 2009, with emphasis on the later years). A few photographs are a recent addition to the series. Dictionary entries, varied in length and broad in scope, include prominent individuals living outside the country. An extensive bibliography of English and non-English sources is divided by topic and features a list of Web sites....Adalian (director, Armenian National Institute) has published other works and has completed a project on the Armenian Genocide for the US National Archives. This is a useful one-step source for university and college libraries. Summing Up: Recommended. (CHOICE)

Almost one-third longer than the first edition, published in 2002, this volume in the Scarecrow Historical Dictionaries of Europe series follows the same format as other titles in the series. The work begins with a chronology, followed by a lengthy and very informative introductory essay on the history of this ancient, landlocked country. Entries range in length from a paragraph to several pages and provide an eclectic mix of information on religion, foreign policy, the Armenian diaspora, prominent individuals, and the Armenian genocide, to name just a few topics. There is a lengthy but unannotated bibliography organized by subject and subtopic.

The author is a widely published academic expert, so readers can be confident about the authoritativeness of the work. Although there is no indication of how many entries are new or revised, the preface notes that although preparation of the first edition was hampered by a lack of information, the explosion of resources available on the Internet has created “the opposite problem of too much information, even for so small a country.” The bibliography as well as many of the entries reflect this change, making this title worth considering even for libraries that own the first edition. (Booklist 2011-02-15)

About this edition

• Publisher: Scarecrow Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0810860961
• ISBN 13: 9780810860964
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 750