Book Reviews

Richard Pomfret The Central Asian Economies in the Twenty-First Century: Paving a New Silk Road (Princeton University Press, 2019, ISBN: 978-0-691-18221-6, 328 pp., $45.00 / £38.00) Central Asia is of strategic importance to many countries, in particular Russia and China. Russia has sought to maintain its influence in the regionContinue Reading

Julian A. Zelizer The Presidency of Barack Obama: A First Historical Assessment (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2018, ISBN: 9780691160283, 368 pp., $ 21.05) The calendar showed 10th of December 2016 when a group of professors gathered at Princeton University for a 2-day lasting conference to put the presidentialContinue Reading

Robert Irwin Ibn Khaldun: An Intellectual Biography (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2018, ISBN: 978-0-691-17466-2, 267 pp., $ 29.95) Ibn Khaldun (Wali al-Din ‘Abd al-Raḥman Ibn Khaldun) who lived between 1332 and 1406 has been one of the greatest intellectuals in human history. He clearly deserves this reputation becauseContinue Reading

Jason C Sharman Empires of the Weak: The Real Story of European Expansion and the Creation of the New World Order (Princeton University Press, 2019, 216 Pages, $26) This colourful work enjoys tackling the general acceptance of the “military revolution” and “fiscal-military” theses that claim European expansion over the 16th-19thContinue Reading

Michael George Hanchard The Spectre of Race: How Discrimination Haunts Western Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2018, 280 Pages, Cloth $29.95) Hanchard’s book is a detailed discussion of the concept of race and its evolution, and how it underpins the debate on citizenship and democracy. In order to understand such aContinue Reading

John C Hulsman To Dare More Boldly: The Audacious Story of Political Risk (Princeton University Press, 2019, xiv+ 323 Pages, $29.95) This discursive, interesting, insightful book draws on the claimed list of ten warnings underlying the Pythia’s (never quite clear whether she is singular or plural) wisdom as the OracleContinue Reading