Download or read book Black Dragon River written by Dominic Ziegler and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-11-08 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “As the book’s subtitle indicates, Mr. Ziegler uses one of the world’s great rivers as a vehicle to pursue this story—and what a vehicle it is. . . . [He] writes beautifully, and with the fervor of a naturalist.” —The Wall Street Journal “The writing is superb . . . a true labour of love, Black Dragon River is a triumph.” —The Spectator Black Dragon River is a personal journey down one of Asia’s great rivers that reveals the region’s essential history and culture. The world’s ninth largest river, the Amur serves as a large part of the border between Russia and China. As a crossroads for the great empires of Asia, this area offers journalist Dominic Ziegler a lens with which to examine the societies at Europe's only borderland with east Asia. He follows a journey from the river's top to bottom, and weaves the history, ecology and peoples to show a region obsessed with the past—and to show how this region holds a key to the complex and critical relationship between Russia and China today. One of Asia’s mightiest rivers, the Amur is also the most elusive. The terrain it crosses is legendarily difficult to traverse. Near the river’s source, Ziegler travels on horseback from the Mongolian steppe into the taiga, and later he is forced by the river’s impassability to take the Trans-Siberian Railway through the four-hundred-mile valley of water meadows inland. As he voyages deeper into the Amur wilderness, Ziegler also journeys into the history of the peoples and cultures the river’s path has transformed. The known history of the river begins with Genghis Khan and the rise of the Mongolian empire a millennium ago, and the story of the region has been one of aggression and conquest ever since. The modern history of the river is the story of Russia's push across the Eurasian landmass to China. For China, the Amur is a symbol of national humiliation and Western imperial land seizure; to Russia it is a symbol of national regeneration, its New World dreams and eastern prospects. The quest to take the Amur was to be Russia’s route to greatness, replacing an oppressive European identity with a vibrant one that faced the Pacific. Russia launched a grab in 1854 and took from China a chunk of territory equal in size nearly to France and Germany combined. Later, the region was the site for atrocities meted out on the Russian far east in the twentieth century during the Russian civil war and under Stalin. The long shared history on the Amur has conditioned the way China and Russia behave toward each other—and toward the outside world. To understand Putin’s imperial dreams, we must comprehend Russia’s relationship to its far east and how it still shapes the Russian mind. Not only is the Amur a key to Putinism, its history is also embedded in an ongoing clash of empires with the West.
Download or read book The Wetland Book written by C. Max Finlayson and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-06-07 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Wetland Book is a comprehensive resource aimed at supporting the trans- and multidisciplinary research and practice which is inherent to this field. Aware both that wetlands research is on the rise and that researchers and students are often working or learning across several disciplines, The Wetland Book is a readily accessible online and print reference which will be the first port of call on key concepts in wetlands science and management. This easy-to-follow reference will allow multidisciplinary teams and transdisciplinary individuals to look up terms, access further details, read overviews on key issues and navigate to key articles selected by experts.
Download or read book The Amur River written by Colin Thubron and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-09-21 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A gripping read with fascinating political insight." (Sunday Times, London) "Elegant, elegiac and poignant...Thubron is an intrepid traveler, a shrewd observer and a lyrical guide... to the river, much of it along the border between these two powers at a time of rapid and tense reconfiguration of global geopolitics." (Washington Post) The most admired travel writer of our time—author of Shadow of the Silk Road and To a Mountain in Tibet—recounts an eye-opening, often perilous journey along a little known Far East Asian river that for over a thousand miles forms the highly contested border between Russia and China. The Amur River is almost unknown. Yet it is the tenth longest river in the world, rising in the Mongolian mountains and flowing through Siberia to the Pacific. For 1,100 miles it forms the tense border between Russia and China. Simmering with the memory of land-grabs and unequal treaties, this is the most densely fortified frontier on earth. In his eightieth year, Colin Thubron takes a dramatic journey from the Amur’s secret source to its giant mouth, covering almost 3,000 miles. Harassed by injury and by arrest from the local police, he makes his way along both the Russian and Chinese shores, starting out by Mongolian horse, then hitchhiking, sailing on poacher’s sloops or travelling the Trans-Siberian Express. Having revived his Russian and Mandarin, he talks to everyone he meets, from Chinese traders to Russian fishermen, from monks to indigenous peoples. By the time he reaches the river’s desolate end, where Russia’s nineteenth-century imperial dream petered out, a whole, pivotal world has come alive. The Amur River is a shining masterpiece by the acknowledged laureate of travel writing, an urgent lesson in history and the culmination of an astonishing career.
Download or read book Among the Russians written by Colin Thubron and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-02-29 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A magnificent achievement' Nikolai Tolstoy, The Times Among the Russians is a marvellous account of a solitary journey by car from St. Petersburg and the Baltic States south to Georgia and Armenia. A gifted writer and intrepid traveller, Thubron grapples with the complexities of Russian identity and relays his extraordinary journey in characteristically lyrical style. This is an enthralling and revealing account of the habits and idiosyncrasies of a fascinating nation along with a sharp and insightful social commentary of Russian life. 'Superb... one of the best books on Russia to appear in years' New York Times
Download or read book Frontier Encounters written by Franck Billé and published by Open Book Publishers. This book was released on 2012-08-01 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China and Russia are rising economic and political powers that share thousands of miles of border. Despite their proximity, their interactions with each other - and with their third neighbour Mongolia - are rarely discussed. Although the three countries share a boundary, their traditions, languages and worldviews are remarkably different. Frontier Encounters presents a wide range of views on how the borders between these unique countries are enacted, produced, and crossed. It sheds light on global uncertainties: China's search for energy resources and the employment of its huge population, Russia's fear of Chinese migration, and the precarious independence of Mongolia as its neighbours negotiate to extract its plentiful resources. Bringing together anthropologists, sociologists and economists, this timely collection of essays offers new perspectives on an area that is currently of enormous economic, strategic and geo-political relevance.
Download or read book Library of Congress Subject Headings written by Library of Congress and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 1542 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Library of Congress Subject Headings written by Library of Congress. Cataloging Policy and Support Office and published by . This book was released on 2006 with total page 1732 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Library of Congress Subject Headings written by and published by . This book was released on 2009 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Library of Congress Subject Headings written by Library of Congress and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 1460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Travels in Siberia written by Ian Frazier and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2010-10-12 with total page 541 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Dazzling Russian travelogue from the bestselling author of Great Plains In his astonishing new work, Ian Frazier, one of our greatest and most entertaining storytellers, trains his perceptive, generous eye on Siberia, the storied expanse of Asiatic Russia whose grim renown is but one explanation among hundreds for the region's fascinating, enduring appeal. In Travels in Siberia, Frazier reveals Siberia's role in history—its science, economics, and politics—with great passion and enthusiasm, ensuring that we'll never think about it in the same way again. With great empathy and epic sweep, Frazier tells the stories of Siberia's most famous exiles, from the well-known—Dostoyevsky, Lenin (twice), Stalin (numerous times)—to the lesser known (like Natalie Lopukhin, banished by the empress for copying her dresses) to those who experienced unimaginable suffering in Siberian camps under the Soviet regime, forever immortalized by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn in The Gulag Archipelago. Travels in Siberia is also a unique chronicle of Russia since the end of the Soviet Union, a personal account of adventures among Russian friends and acquaintances, and, above all, a unique, captivating, totally Frazierian take on what he calls the "amazingness" of Russia—a country that, for all its tragic history, somehow still manages to be funny. Travels in Siberia will undoubtedly take its place as one of the twenty-first century's indispensable contributions to the travel-writing genre.
Download or read book The Russian Far East written by Josh Newell and published by Daniel & Daniel Publishers. This book was released on 2004 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this expansion of the 1996 edition (titled The Russian Far East: Forests, Biodiversity Hotspots, and Industrial Developments ), Newell, who works for Friends of the Earth-Japan, the volume co-sponsor, offers a starting point toward sustainable development (as a new section is called) of the res
Download or read book Russia written by Mauricio Borrero and published by Infobase Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 512 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A reference guide to the world's largest country. Covering influential individuals, significant places, and important policies, it provides readers with a greater understanding of Russian history. A narrative history, chronology, and A-Z entries are included.
Download or read book The Archaeology and Geomorphology of Northern Asia written by Henry N. Michael and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 1964-12-15 with total page 989 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The eighteen articles appearing in this, the fifth, number of Anthropology of the North: Translations from Russian Sources, were mostly published between the years 1957 and 1963. The exceptions are S.I. Rudenko's "The culture of the prehistoric population of Kamchatka," published in 1948, and A.P. Okladnikov's "Paleolithic remains in the Lena river basin," published in 1953. Thirteen of the articles deal with the archaeology and five with the geomorphology of selected areas of northern Asia. Dr. Chester S. Chard of the University of Wisconsin analyzes the contents and meaning of these articles in his Introduction to the book and fruitfully correlates them with other sources which have been made available to the English-reading specialist over the past few years. In the Notes and References attached to each article, editorial reference has sometimes been added about the availability in English translation of a cited article.
Download or read book Russian Foreign Policy written by Nikolas K. Gvosdev and published by CQ Press. This book was released on 2013-08-22 with total page 457 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In a truly contemporary analysis of Moscow's relations with its neighbors and other strategic international actors, Nikolas K. Gvosdev and Christopher Marsh use a comprehensive vectors approach, dividing the world into eight geographic zones. Each vector chapter looks at the dynamics of key bilateral relationships while highlighting major topical issues—oil and energy, defense policy, economic policy, the role of international institutions, and the impact of major interest groups or influencers—demonstrating that Russia formulates multiple, sometimes contrasting, foreign policies. Providing rich historical context as well as exposure to the scholarly literature, Russian Foreign Policy: Interests, Vectors, and Sectors offers an incisive look at how and why Russia partners with some states while it counter-balances others.
Download or read book Crossroads of Cuisine written by Paul David Buell and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2020-11-04 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Crossroads of Cuisine offers history of food and cultural exchanges in and around Central Asia. It discusses geographical base, and offers historical and cultural overview. A photo essay binds it all together. The book offers new views of the past.
Download or read book Owls of the Eastern Ice written by Jonathan C. Slaght and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Notable Book of 2020 Longlisted for the National Book Award Winner of the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award and the Minnesota Book Award for General Nonfiction A Finalist for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year Award Winner of the Peace Corps Worldwide Special Book Award A Best Book of the Year: NPR, The Wall Street Journal, Smithsonian, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, The Globe and Mail, The BirdBooker Report, Geographical, Open Letter Review Best Nature Book of the Year: The Times (London) "A terrifically exciting account of [Slaght's] time in the Russian Far East studying Blakiston’s fish owls, huge, shaggy-feathered, yellow-eyed, and elusive birds that hunt fish by wading in icy water . . . Even on the hottest summer days this book will transport you.” —Helen Macdonald, author of H is for Hawk, in Kirkus I saw my first Blakiston’s fish owl in the Russian province of Primorye, a coastal talon of land hooking south into the belly of Northeast Asia . . . No scientist had seen a Blakiston’s fish owl so far south in a hundred years . . . When he was just a fledgling birdwatcher, Jonathan C. Slaght had a chance encounter with one of the most mysterious birds on Earth. Bigger than any owl he knew, it looked like a small bear with decorative feathers. He snapped a quick photo and shared it with experts. Soon he was on a five-year journey, searching for this enormous, enigmatic creature in the lush, remote forests of eastern Russia. That first sighting set his calling as a scientist. Despite a wingspan of six feet and a height of over two feet, the Blakiston’s fish owl is highly elusive. They are easiest to find in winter, when their tracks mark the snowy banks of the rivers where they feed. They are also endangered. And so, as Slaght and his devoted team set out to locate the owls, they aim to craft a conservation plan that helps ensure the species’ survival. This quest sends them on all-night monitoring missions in freezing tents, mad dashes across thawing rivers, and free-climbs up rotting trees to check nests for precious eggs. They use cutting-edge tracking technology and improvise ingenious traps. And all along, they must keep watch against a run-in with a bear or an Amur tiger. At the heart of Slaght’s story are the fish owls themselves: cunning hunters, devoted parents, singers of eerie duets, and survivors in a harsh and shrinking habitat. Through this rare glimpse into the everyday life of a field scientist and conservationist, Owls of the Eastern Ice testifies to the determination and creativity essential to scientific advancement and serves as a powerful reminder of the beauty, strength, and vulnerability of the natural world.
Download or read book China and Japan in the Russian Imagination 1685 1922 written by Susanna Soojung Lim and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the centuries, as Russia strove to build itself into an imperial power equal to those in the West, China and Japan came to occupy a special place in Russians' view of the orient. Never colonised by Russia or the West, China and Japan were linked not only to the greatest of Russian imperial fantasies, but also, conversely, to a deep sense of insecurity regarding Russia's place in the world, a sense of insecurity which deepened as China and Japan began to modernise in the later nineteenth century. Drawing on a wide range of works by Russian writers and thinkers, Lim sets out how Russian perceptions of China and Japan were formed from Muscovy's first contacts with China in the late seventeenth century, through to the aftermath of Russia's defeat by Japan in the early twentieth century.
