Product Description

"The Black Sea" is at once a homage to an ocean and its shores and an amazingly readable meditation on Eurasian history from the earliest times to the present. It evokes the culture, history and politics of the volatile region which surrounds the Black Sea. Ascherson recalls the world of Herodotus and Aeschylus; Ovid's place of exile on what is now the coast of Romania; the decline and fall of Byzantium; the mysterious fastness of the Christian Goths; the Tatar Khanates; the growth of Russian power across the grasslands, and the centuries of war between Ottoman and Russian Empires around the Black Sea; and in our own century the terrors of Stalinism and its fascist enemy, striving for mastery of these endlessly colourful and complex shores. This is a story of Greeks, Scythians, Samatians, Huns, Goths, Turks, Russian and Poles. This is the sea where Europe ended. It is the place where 'barbarism' was born.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #55252 in Books
• Published on: 2007-10-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 320 pages

The Independent
'a grand theme brought to life in these pages to exhilarating life'

Guardian
`...beautifully written book which is part history and part travelogue'

Irish Times
`Many will find it compelling'

Customer Reviews

Unbalanced but often fascinating
First, the bad stuff - this book should really be called "What the Poles and Russians got up to north of the Black Sea" since this is what it's mainly about. There is very little about Turkey or the Turks, nothing about Romania or Bulgaria. In spite of this, I enjoyed the book a lot. It is full of fascinating facts and stories. The narrative is built around the break up of the Soviet Union but ranges across a vast area of history to give some interesting sidelights on the politics of nationalism. My favourite bits were his discussions of the Skythians, Sarmatians & "Amazons" (see also Howard Reid's "Arthur the dragon king" for related material). Also includes a very interesting & provocative discussion of the romantic myths surrounding the cossacks.

excellent synoposis of misunderstood and unknown region
Neal Ascherson does a scholarly study of an unknown and highly mysterious geographical crossroads of several major civilizations. His scope of study ranges from the 1000 BCE to the present.

Ascherson examines early Greek settlements in the world's breadbasket, and includes such diverse settlements as the Scythians, Romans, the Karaiim, the Russian and Ottaman Empires and concludes with present day Ukraine. It includes archaeological finds include treasures that predate Homer's Troy.

The exhibit "Treasures of the Ukraine" currently in Montreal, features many of the archaeological finds discussed by Ascherson. Surely, this exhibit must rank favorably with other major excavations of antiquity.

Historical and political figures intertwine with mythology, history and geography to create a much needed understanding of a neglected land and rich diverse cultures and the diverse peoples who visited and inhabited these lands.

A superb combination of history and travel writing.
Neal Ascherson is sadly a rarity these days - a journalist who can move easily from the confines of newspaper writing to the broader sweep of historiography and travel writing. Yet his skill as a journalist is obviously of great help to him as he pares back what is obviously a tremendous amount of research to give us this lucid and almost racy account of the history of the Black Sea - an era which stretches from the time of the ancient Greeks, right up to present-day fish quotas imposed on the Turks. Ascherson is no cold observer of the human fate, but becomes wrapped up in the Black Sea stories of both past and present, and thus tells us stories of Polish poets and the plight of the once ubiquitous sturgeon with equal passion. A superb read.