Professor Illuminates History of Modern Caucasus

Rising at the intersection of Europe, Russia, and the Middle East, the Caucasus mountains lay inside the Soviet Union for most of the twentieth century, before movements of national liberation created newly independent countries and sparked the devastating war in Chechnya. In his new book, The Ghost of Freedom: A History of the Caucasus (Oxford University Press, 2008), Ion Ratiu Professor of Romanian Studies and Professor of International Affairs and Government Charles King presents 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.

"This book tries to make sense of a part of the world that has seemed, during the last twenty years, the epitome of senselessness, where governments have had no qualms about bombing their own citizens, where terrorists have held hospitals and schools under siege, and where acts of selfless hospitality and unspeakable cruelty seem to be two sides of the same cultural coin," King writes.

"This is a history of the modern Caucasus as a place from the beginnings of Russian engagement down to the present day. But it is also a history of the Caucasus as an array of contrasting ideas -- of liberty and lawlessness, of things both awe-inspiring and awful."

King reveals how tsars, highlanders, revolutionaries, and adventurers have contributed to the history of this borderland, providing a 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 year -- a struggle which has led to liberation as well as to new forms of captivity. The book illuminates 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.

"Charles King's Ghost of Freedom is a work that is gripping and important, scholarly and wonderfully readable," says Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of Young Stalin. "It not only explains and analyzes one of our world's most strategic regions, but also delivers all the exotic and romantic turbulence of these flamboyant warriors and poets and the extraordinary peoples of the Caucasus."

Charles King is the Ion Ratiu Professor of Romanian Studies and Professor of International Affairs and Government in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Department of Government at Georgetown University, as well as faculty chair of the School of Foreign Service. He also holds the university’s Ion Ratiu Chair in Romanian Studies. A former Marshall Scholar, King received a doctorate in political science from Oxford University. He is author of The Black Sea: A History and The Moldovans. He is a frequent traveler to Eastern Europe, especially the Balkans, and is a fluent speaker of Russian and Romanian. King’s research interests include political change and ethnicity in the former Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and the Balkans. He has lectured widely on these and other topics and has appeared as a commentator on CNN, the BBC, and other media.

Source: Office of Communications

February 1, 2008