Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams

( "Rich and riveting, complex and compelling, powerful an...)

"Rich and riveting, complex and compelling, powerful and poetic."―Peter M. Gianotti, Newsday In Odessa, the greatest port on the Black Sea, a dream of cosmopolitan freedom inspired geniuses and innovators, from the writers Alexander Pushkin and Isaac Babel to Zionist activist Vladimir Jabotinsky and immunologist Ilya Mechnikov. Yet here too was death on a staggering scale, as World War II brought the mass murder of Jews carried out by the city’s Romanian occupiers. Odessa is an elegy for the vibrant, multicultural tapestry of which a thriving Jewish population formed an essential part, as well as a celebration of the survival of Odessa’s dream in a diaspora reaching all the way to Brighton Beach. 25 illustrations

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393342360/?tag=2022091-20

The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus by Charles King (2009-11-11)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N0BQI5J/?tag=2022091-20

Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul by King, Charles(September 15, 2014) Hardcover

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B015QNK8S4/?tag=2022091-20

The Black Sea: A History by Charles King (2004-05-20)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NCQ38W0/?tag=2022091-20

By Charles King - The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008UBRDUQ/?tag=2022091-20

The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus

(The Caucasus mountains rise at the intersection of Europe...)

The Caucasus mountains rise at the intersection of Europe, Russia, and the Middle East. A land of astonishing natural beauty and a dizzying array of ancient cultures, the Caucasus for most of the twentieth century lay inside the Soviet Union, before movements of national liberation created newly independent countries and sparked the devastating war in Chechnya. Combining riveting storytelling with insightful analysis, The Ghost of Freedom is the first general history of the modern Caucasus, stretching from the beginning of Russian imperial expansion up to the rise of new countries after the Soviet Union's collapse. In evocative and accessible prose, Charles King reveals how tsars, highlanders, revolutionaries, and adventurers have contributed to the fascinating history of this borderland, providing an indispensable guide to the complicated histories, politics, and cultures of this intriguing frontier. Based on new research in multiple languages, the book shows how the struggle for freedom in the mountains, hills, and plains of the Caucasus has been a perennial theme over the last two hundred years--a struggle which has led to liberation as well as to new forms of captivity. The book sheds valuable light on the origins of modern disputes, including the ongoing war in Chechnya, conflicts in Georgia and Azerbaijan, and debates over oil from the Caspian Sea and its impact on world markets. Ranging from the salons of Russian writers to the circus sideshows of America, from the offices of European diplomats to the villages of Muslim mountaineers, The Ghost of Freedom paints a rich portrait of one of the world's most turbulent and least understood regions.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195392396/?tag=2022091-20

Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of DreamsODESSA: GENIUS AND DEATH IN A CITY OF DREAMS by King, Charles (Author) on Feb-28-2011 Hardcover

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008KUX0CC/?tag=2022091-20

Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams by Charles King (2011-02-28)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JXT5F5I/?tag=2022091-20

Extreme Politics: Nationalism, Violence, and the End of Eastern Europe by Charles King (2010-01-14)

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N0WHEDY/?tag=2022091-20

Midnight at the Pera Palace: The Birth of Modern Istanbul

( “Timely . . . brilliant . . . hugely enjoyable, magnifi...)

“Timely . . . brilliant . . . hugely enjoyable, magnificently researched and deeply absorbing.”―Jason Goodwin, New York Times Book Review At midnight, December 31, 1925, citizens of the newly proclaimed Turkish Republic celebrated the New Year. For the first time ever, they had agreed to use a nationally unified calendar and clock. Yet in Istanbul―an ancient crossroads and Turkey's largest city―people were looking toward an uncertain future. Never purely Turkish, Istanbul was home to generations of Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, as well as Muslims. It welcomed White Russian nobles ousted by the Russian Revolution, Bolshevik assassins on the trail of the exiled Leon Trotsky, German professors, British diplomats, and American entrepreneurs―a multicultural panoply of performers and poets, do-gooders and ne’er-do-wells. During the Second World War, thousands of Jews fleeing occupied Europe found passage through Istanbul, some with the help of the future Pope John XXIII. At the Pera Palace, Istanbul's most luxurious hotel, so many spies mingled in the lobby that the manager posted a sign asking them to relinquish their seats to paying guests. In beguiling prose and rich character portraits, Charles King brings to life a remarkable era when a storied city stumbled into the modern world and reshaped the meaning of cosmopolitanism. 32 photographs

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393351866/?tag=2022091-20

Extreme Politics: Nationalism, Violence, and the End of Eastern Europe

(Why do some violent conflicts endure across the centuries...)

Why do some violent conflicts endure across the centuries, while others become dimly remembered ancient struggles among forgotten peoples? Is nationalism really the powerful force that it appeared to be in the 1990s? This wide-ranging work examines the conceptual intersection of nationalist ideology, social violence, and the political transformation of Europe and Eurasia over the last two decades. The end of communism seemed to usher in a period of radical change-an era of "extreme politics" that pitted nations, ethnic groups, and violent entrepreneurs against one another, from the wars in the Balkans and Caucasus to the apparent upsurge in nationalist mobilization throughout the region. But the last twenty years have also illustrated the incredible diversity of political life after the end of one-party rule. Extreme Politics engages with themes from the micropolitics of social violence, to the history of nationalism studies, to the nature of demographic change in Eurasia. Published twenty years since the collapse of communism, Extreme Politics charts the end of "Eastern Europe" as a place and chronicles the ongoing revolution in the scholarly study of the post-communist world.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0195370384/?tag=2022091-20

The Black Sea: A History

(The lands surrounding the Black Sea share a colorful past...)

The lands surrounding the Black Sea share a colorful past. Though in recent decades they have experienced ethnic conflict, economic collapse, and interstate rivalry, their common heritage and common interests run deep. Now, as a region at the meeting point of the Balkans, Central Asia, and the Middle East, the Black Sea is more important than ever. In this lively and entertaining book, which is based on extensive research in multiple languages, Charles King investigates the myriad 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.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/019928394X/?tag=2022091-20

Ending Civil Wars (Adelphi series)

(Why have civil wars been so vicious and protracted? What ...)

Why have civil wars been so vicious and protracted? What motivates belligerents to continue fighting even when doing so would seem in their own worst interest? Charles King assesses the structures of decision-making and the economic benefits of warfare in internal conflicts. He argues that outside actors can design more effective forms of intervention by being sensitive to the incentives for continued violence.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0198293437/?tag=2022091-20

Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams by King, Charles (2012) Paperback

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IGYPG92/?tag=2022091-20