Central Asia in World History (New Oxford World History) 1st Edition, Kindle Edition
by Peter B. Golden[1]
A vast region stretching roughly from the Volga River to Manchuria and the northern Chinese borderlands, Central Asia has been called the "pivot of history," a land where nomadic invaders and Silk Road traders changed the destinies of states that ringed its borders, including pre-modern Europe, the Middle East, and China. In Central Asia in World History, Peter B. Golden provides an engaging account of this important region, ranging from prehistory to the present, focusing largely on the unique melting pot of cultures that this region has produced over millennia. Golden describes the traders who braved the heat and cold along caravan routes to link East Asia and Europe; the Mongol Empire of Chinggis Khan and his successors, the largest contiguous land empire in history; the invention of gunpowder, which allowed the great sedentary empires to overcome the horse-based nomads; the power struggles of Russia and China, and later Russia and Britain, for control of the area. Finally, he discusses the region today, a key area that neighbors such geopolitical hot spots as Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and China.
ISBN-13: 978-0195338195 ISBN-10: 0195338197 [1] Peter Benjamin Golden (born 1941) is Professor Emeritus of History, Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies at Rutgers University. He is the author of a wide array of books, articles and other written works on Turkic and Central Asian Studies. A native of New York City, he grew up in Washington Heights and graduated from Music & Art High School.
He was Director of the Middle Eastern Studies Program (2008-2011) and retired from Rutgers University in 2012. He earned his bachelor's degree from CUNY Queens College in 1963 and his M.A. and PhD in History from Columbia University in 1968 and 1970, respectively. Golden also studied at the Dil ve Tarih-Coğrafya Fakültesi in Ankara (1967-1968). He is an honorary member of the Türk Dil Kurumu and Kőrösi Csoma Társaság/Csoma de Kőrös Society of Hungarian Orientalists and was a member of the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study (Princeton) 2005-2006.