Neal Ascherson

This is a thoughtful, complicated book, an amalgam of travel-writing, history, journalism, cultural studies, and all kinds of other stuff. Rather than attempting to provide a comprehensive history of the Black Sea region, Ascherson pursues a small set of topics that particularly interest him from the footprints they left in archaeology and classical literature right through to his own subjective experiences in Crimea, the northern Caucasus and and the Turkish Black Sea coast in the immediate show more aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

We read about the complicated ecology of the sea itself and how that has been and is being studied, about the region as the most intensively-documented point of interaction between the settled urban culture of the Pontic Greeks ("civilisation") and the nomadic culture of the Scythians, Sarmatians and other "barbarian" steppe peoples. But also about how the "fanciful" stuff about Amazons in Herodotus has turned out not to be so fanciful at all ... now that archaeologists have finally bothered to ask themselves whether the warrior skeletons they found in ancient burial mounds were those of men or women. And about the wonderfully multi-culti Bosporan Kingdom, based at Panticapaeum (up the hill from modern Kerch), the real identity of the Tatars and Cossacks, and the peculiar 17th century Polish aristocratic fancy of "Sarmatian" descent. And fascinating stuff about Adam Mickiewicz in Odesa, Harold Hardrade in Micklegarth, and all sorts of other things...

If there's an underlying theme, it seems to be about how different cultures/ethnicities/languages/religions have often been able to cohabit successfully in the region for long periods, but only until their equilibrium is displaced by some set of events which allows one or more parties to believe that there's something to be gained by driving out their neighbours. More often than not, the process turns out to be horribly destructive to all parties (e.g. the Abkhazian war in the early 1990s), but somehow the knowledge of the likelihood of that kind of outcome never entirely stops humans from stirring up distrust and violence. show less

Neal Ascherson has an obvious background in the study of Greece and Rome, but has spent some time chasing down the byways of the title's body of water. The book is a meditation more than an account but touches on many of the curious peoples that have beeen part of the Pontic experience. Almost every chapter leaves me with a need to know more about the peoples or poities touched on. A good book to read with an eye for any of the further areas of research he touches on. Epigrams abound. some show more are even original. show less

The crimes of King Leopold II of Belgium are many and horrendous. If Dante was alive and writing "The Divine Comedy" at the start of the last century, he will surely have found a place on one of the lower levels of hell for Leopold II.

Leopold II's crime was to make the Congo his personal domain, and enslave the locals to produce rubber and ivory for Leopold's private profit. The quotas placed on the locals and the punishments meted out to them for failing to reach the quotas are harrowing, show more and the fact he got away with doing this for so long is nothing short of astonishing.

Ascherson covers the history of the Congo, tied in as it was with the Scramble for Africa, the barbarity of life in the Congo and the international move to eventually condemn Leopold II to give up the world's largest personal estate. There are other books that cover this piece of history but I would start with "The King Incorporated" to get the best introduction. show less

The Black Sea is a well written if, at times, a rather self indulgent book. The book is not really about the Black Sea in its entirety - great tracts of its coastline are ignored and the historical gems are chosen to meet the interests and sometimes political prejudices of its author.

Romania, Bulgaria and half the Turkish coastline are ignored. Ascherson goes hurtling off to the North West on a lengthy tour of matters Polish-Lithuanian that barely connect with the Sea. He also has a clear show more anti-Russian bent and the book is very much of its near-Cold War time (1995).

Having said this, the book is a good educated light read, a mixture of well researched history, anthropology and anecdote from his own regional travels (with a bit of topography) that, other than the Polish indulgence (he clearly likes Poles as much as he dislikes Soviets), entertains.

Ascherson is a Scot and a small nation man. Start with an understanding of that prejudice and you will be able to filter out his politics and his bias and better enjoy the narrative. He is also a classic metropolitan liberal which is not always a bad thing when it comes to thinking about colonialism.

Although the book is not going to give you a balanced history of a vital European region, possibly more vital as Russia fights back against its containment, many of the stories he tells will be new to many people and so worth reading.

If there is a political theme beyond his mere prejudice, it is that nationalisms are inventions (fairly standard academic stuff) and that the claims of those he does not like are pretty invalid and those that he does like are notable for being inclusive liberal nationalisms. I sense a man of 1848.

Strip all that ideology away and he is good on the Greek-Scythian relationship in the classical era and introduces us to locally important cultures scarcely known to the West such as the Sarmatians, the Bosporan Kingdom and the Empire of Trebizond.

He tells a good story about the tragic events in Abkhazia and visits Crimea after the fall of the Soviet Union (he is pro-Tatar). He offers a rather sinister tale (to me though perhaps not to him) of the recent invention of Lazi nationalism by a late Herderian German academic.

In fact, Ascherson is not a little incoherent and sentimental about nationalism. He sort of likes it if it is for the little people and dislikes it if it is for the big people. There is, in this, all the fluffy sentimentality and near-permanent outrage at oppression of the cosmopolitan liberal.

Indeed, his prejudices become not a little irritating after a while. Now that Crimea and Novorossiya are back in the news, one could almost write his paragraphs for him about current events, at least based on this book.

But, putting all that aside, he tells a good story. He is a good journalist (a journalist does not have to be a coherent 'thinker'). When his implicit ideology is allowed to rest, his judgements can be sound and humane - sometimes, you can even see the questioning side of him break through.

Not exactly a wholly coherent book but a nice piece of international affairs entertainment. A recommendation as a holiday read for someone planning to go on a holiday visit to the region (assuming it is not Bulgaria or Romania or Turkey West of Sinop).

I can't imagine too many people planning holidays today in Odessa, Novorossiya, Crimea, Georgia or North East Turkey but, if such people are out there, this would be a good book for the journey and for the hotel. show less