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Description
When Charles de Gaulle learned that France's former colonies in Africa had chosen independence, the great general shrugged dismissively, They are the dust of empire. But as Americans have learned, particles of dust from remote and seemingly medieval countries can, at great human and material cost, jam the gears of a superpower. In The Dust of Empire, Karl E. Meyer examines the present and past of the Asian heartland in a book that blends scholarship with reportage, providing fascinating detail about regions and peoples now of urgent concern to America: the five Central Asian republics, the Caspian and the Caucasus, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and long-dominant Russia. He provides the context for America's war on terrorism, for Washington's search for friends and allies in an Islamic world rife with extremism, and for the new politics of pipelines and human rights in an area richer in the former than the latter. This cautionary tale offers a rich and complicated tapestry of a region where empires have so often come to grief.
About the Author
Karl E. Meyer was a longtime member of The New York Times editorial board, a former foreign correspondent for The Washington Post and is currently the editor of World Policy Journal. He holds a doctorate from Princeton University and has taught at Princeton, Yale, and Oxford Universities. He lives in Weston, Connecticut.
The page-turning chapter on Afghanistan that follows is sharply focused and analytically outstanding. — New York Times
As a volume of history about the dangers ahead, in Iraq and elsewhere, The Dust of Empire deserves to be read in the White House… scholarly and expertly told. — Los Angeles Times Book Review
Meyer's new book is not only readable and well informed but timely to an almost painful degree….This book is a rattling good yarn, and if I say that is has an old-fashioned flavor, I don't mean that as dispraise. There are many insights, and some splendid vignettes. — New York Times Book Review
This is important history, compelling and relevant to present circumstances. Mr. Meyer has synthesized a great deal of information and argues forcefully and convincingly. — New York Sun
A powerful introduction to this poorly understood region…Meyer combines scholarly expertise with journalistic detail in a rich account of relaying formative events through extensive research and poignant personal anecdotes…a compelling yet cursory introduction to a fascinating region. — Publishers Weekly
The Dust of Empire offers a learned and graceful exploration of territory ripe for American domination…. display[s] a keen sense of history and geography… a fascinating story…Meyer's primary goal, however is to offer policy lessons…And most persuasively, Meyer argues that the U.S. empire can't possibly be a force for good unless Americans acquaint themselves with the history, strivings and grievances of Central Asia's inhabitants. — Business Week
[Meyer's] analysis of the efforts of Russia first to resist the onslaught of central Asian nomads and then to subdue and pacify them is both astute and essential to understanding the complex relationships that have followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The description of the frustrations and humiliations that sowed the seeds of the Islamic revolution in Iran should be essential reading for those who continue to find Iranian hostility to outsiders baffling. A timely analysis of an era likely to be the focus of American concerns for a long time. — Booklist
Meyer adroitly shows how great power rivalry, and especially Cold War politics, shaped such events as the creation of Pakistan, American-Iranian relations, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan…This book is particularly useful to those attempting to understand contemporary events. Recommended for all libraries. — Library Journal
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