David Pilling of the Financial Times surveys a crop of new books on Asia and calls Dilip Hiro's Inside Central Asia "a detailed and nuanced overview. The book is thorough and diligent, but the country chapters – as opposed to the thematic introduction and conclusion – plod chronologically. Still, it is the most comprehensive of the four and most deliberately brings out themes of ethnic tensions, religious intolerance and struggle for political identity. For many, these lands at the crossroads of the Eurasian continent, between the splintered Soviet empire and the rising Chinese one, remain a mystery. These books, Hiro’s particularly, help put that right. They reveal what we should have already known: that the grand themes and tragedies of the lands Marco Polo explored and Genghis Khan conquered so long ago are mirror images of our own."
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Dilip Hiro's INSIDE CENTRAL ASIA Reviewed in Financial Times
David Pilling of the Financial Times surveys a crop of new books on Asia and calls Dilip Hiro's Inside Central Asia "a detailed and nuanced overview. The book is thorough and diligent, but the country chapters – as opposed to the thematic introduction and conclusion – plod chronologically. Still, it is the most comprehensive of the four and most deliberately brings out themes of ethnic tensions, religious intolerance and struggle for political identity. For many, these lands at the crossroads of the Eurasian continent, between the splintered Soviet empire and the rising Chinese one, remain a mystery. These books, Hiro’s particularly, help put that right. They reveal what we should have already known: that the grand themes and tragedies of the lands Marco Polo explored and Genghis Khan conquered so long ago are mirror images of our own."
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