Focuses on the vast expanse of remote, challenging terrain from the steppes of southern Russia and the turbulent Caucasus Mountains to the deserts of central Asia and northern China to reveal the diverse lands and peoples of the region.
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Across the largest landmass on earth, in regions once conquered by Genghis Khan and exploited by ruthless Communist regimes, dictatorial state are again arising, growing wealthy on petro-dollars and low-cost manufacturing. More and more, they are challenging the West.Media reports focus on the capital cities of Moscow and Beijing, but the people inhabiting the expanses between them remain largely invisible to us, their daily lives and aspirations scarcely more familiar than they were in Cold War days. Tayler finds, for example, a dissident Cossack advocating mass beheadings, a Muslim in Kashgar calling on the United States to bomb Beijing, and Chinese youths in Urumqi desiring nothing more than sex, booze, and rock 'n' roll. Again and again, Tayler encounters people who value liberty and the free market but also idealize tyrants. Now, more than ever, for our own security, we must understand why.As this eye-opening book winds through the steppes of southern Russia, the conflict-ridden Caucasus Mountains, and the deserts of Central Asia and northern China, it reveals that our maps have gone blank at the worst possible time - as a new cold war looms between the West and Russia, and the United States is engaged in a losing struggle with Moscow over influence in the energy-rich countries of Central Asia.
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