Eastern University Books

In terms of Balkan history, they could be called the Turks before the Turks - those hard-living nomad warriors from beyond the Ukrainian steppes who descended on horseback in their multitudes, pillaging as they went and changing the course of history in the process. In Cumans and Tatars: Oriental Military in the Pre-Ottoman Balkans, 1183-1365 (released very recently, on 24 April) we are treated to a fascinating and unmatched account of two Turkic peoples who played a large part in the political and military developments of their day - in the process contributing considerably to the creation of today's Balkan Peninsula.

Drawing both on primary sources from the period in question and the latest scholarly investigations, author István Vásáry makes a persuasive case for how these enigmatic tribes who would later all but disappear from history actually played a major role not only in medieval military affairs, but also in establishing viable political entities in what are now Bulgaria and Romania. The Cumans and Tatars not only made their presence felt as troops under their own command, or as mercenaries in foreign armies, but were also assimilated by the societies with which they came into contact, in some cases inhabiting the uppermost reaches of government and society. They married into the nobility of all adjacent societies, including even that of the Latins who held Constantinople from 1204-1261.

An important point that Cumans and Tatars establishes is that while the Ottomans tend to get all the credit (or, all the blame) for wresting control of the Balkans, there were other Turkic peoples who had established a strong presence there far before they had ever dreamed of an empire in Europe.

At the same time, Vásáry makes a convincing case that the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans was neither accidental nor particularly tragic, in comparison with the prevailing anarchy of the time - a situation partially caused by the unpredictable military depravations of the transient Cuman and Tatar tribes that swept down from the steppes with unsettling (for the local inhabitants) regularity. In his retelling, the Pax Ottomanica finally brought a long period of peace and stability to a region that had been sorely lacking in these qualities for centuries.

And so in the end, the fate of the Balkans was somewhat a matter of pick your poison- the invasion of Turkic peoples from the northeast (Ukraine) or from the southeast (Anatolia). Had the former tribes been as ideologically motivated and driven to urbanization by geographical concerns as were the latter, then perhaps they and not the Ottomans would have established an empire in Europe. That they didn't does not mean that the Tatars and Cumans and their legacy should be ignored.

Livia Kohn has taught Daoism to college students for over 15 years, and she just edited the Daoism Handbook (which you can buy for a whopping $245!). She's one of the world's experts on Daoism, and for the first time she's put together an extraordinarily readable introduction to one of the world's most fascinating and least understood religions.

Unlike many books on Daoism this book covers the whole history from ancient wisdom traditions, through medieval religious communities, to contemporary spiritual practices such as Qigong and Falun gong. Nowhere else are you going to get as comprehensive, and as readable an introduction.

It's not just dry history because the author makes connections to broader issues in Chinese culture and also to issues in comparative religions such as mysticism, modernity, identity and community. It's a great book and great value too.

I am a taoist priest in Hong Kong, and also a candidate of M.A.(Philosophy). Actually, I have read quite a lot of books relating taoism and DAOIST IDENTITY is one of the best books. I highly recommend Chapter 9 "Manifestations of Luzu in morden Guangdong and Hong Kong: The Rise and Growth of Spirit-Writing Cults" by Shiga Ichiko. It contains very useful information for my academic research paper.

However, I would like to point out that the book is mainly for academic purposes, it is not suitable for beginners!

Review by Dr. Irma E. Eichhorn, retired professor of history, San Jose State University, San Jose, California

The opening event in Ida Bender's autobiographical account is the radio announcement of June 22, 1941, about Hitler's invasion of Russia. Bender was nineteen and had returned for the summer to her parents' home in Engels, after completing her first year at the Institute of Foreign Languages in Leningrad. Soon the war and the consequent decree of the Supreme Soviet on August 28, 1941, announcing the mass deportation of the Volga Germans, changed the lives of Bender's family for ever. The Dark Abyss of Exile is the author's well-told story of surviving her Siberian exile but with a changed attitude toward the Soviet state.

The journey of horrors began on September 2, when Bender's family and other Volga Germans left Engels in crowded freight cars and ended several weeks later in a Russian village in the Krasnoyarsk region. In January 1942, however, her father, older brother, and almost all German men were conscripted into a labor army (Trudarmiia) and doomed to hard work in forced labor camps. Then the same cruel fate befell German women. Bender and her mother went to a fishing camp at Verkhne Imbatsk on the Yenisei River. They were fortunate that they could bring along the younger children, two boys and a girl.

Bender's richly detailed narrative impressively creates the daily struggle for survival in the camp against brutal physical, mental, and psychological obstacles. The women fished with nets until late fall, standing barefooted in the icy water because they had no boots. During the Arctic winter months they fished through the ice or felled trees in deep snow, often without a noon break, and then cold, exhausted, and hungry trudged several kilometers back to camp and their wretched lodgings. These were a crowded room with a resentful Russian family or a room in haphazardly constructed barracks, with one small window, bug-infested walls, tree-stump furniture, and a makeshift stove, all visually real for the reader, even without the author's drawings.

Fish were plentiful but were shipped to the military and were forbidden food for the women. Stealing even one fish was severely punished. The daily ration was 600 grams of dark, heavy bread with meager monthly rations of oats, sugar, and margarine. A full ration depended upon the women fulfilling their assigned work quotas. Hunger and scrounging food, whether berries, birds, and even muskrats, were daily preoccupations in an environment where the women were at the mercy of the supervisor and the local inhabitants who called them "fascists" and "traitors."

Conditions varied in the fishing camps along the Yenisei River. A German, Alexander Mueller, efficiently and humanely supervised the camp at Iskup. He enabled Bender and her family to transfer there in August 1944. They still worked hard but without starving. "Iskup was like an oasis" (p.128).

After the war and then the removal of some restrictions on the Germans (but not the vigilance of the police), Bender and her husband eventually moved to Kazakhstan and later Kamyshin on the Volga. From Kamyshin, her father's birthplace, Bender came to Germany and now lives in Hamburg. An American cousin encouraged her to write about her experiences. She did so because she wanted her children and grandchildren to understand the Germans' fate in the Soviet Union. The present work is the English translation of the German manuscript.

In telling her story with a fresh immediacy, Bender reconstructs conversations, especially with her parents. Frequently she also quotes her father's diary, even inserting a long excerpt (pp.97-109) about his labor camp ordeals in the Kirov region. The theme, though, that infuses meaning to her life experiences is survival. This is the author's justification for daily choices and actions in the camps and for her earlier participation in Communist youth organizations. The Communist ideals of equality without poverty appealed to her, but joining Communist youth groups also helped her chances for a college education. During her year in Leningrad she noted the blatant favoritism bestowed upon Party officials, and she "began to lose respect for the Soviet system" (p.55). Yet she writes, even after arriving at the fishing camp, "I still believed in our government" (p.50). The erosion of her faith in the Soviet state (as distinct from the country) is a repetitive motif throughout her chronological treatment of each year in the camps. "Finally in Siberia, I came to understand that the promise of the Soviet state was nothing but empty words" (p.56).

Understandably she also defends her father, the well-known Volga German author, Dominik Hollmann (1899-1990), a former Dean and faculty member at the Pedagogical Institute in Engels. He joined the Communist Party under pressure, but according to his recent critics, he wrote excessively propagandistic works. Bender insists that her father "praised the Soviet system, for no creative person could hope to get a word published unless he included such praise" (p.175). He used his Party membership, moreover, to plead for the restoration of rights to the Germans in the postwar period.

Until 1987-1988, Germans in the Soviet Union could not mention in print their labor camp experiences. Recent autobiographical writings appearing in Russia as well as Germany present an important literature for study from literary, social, cultural, and historical perspectives. Among these works, Ida Bender deserves praise for a thorough, poignant, and thoughtful portrayal of German women's lives in the Soviet Union during the war and postwar years.

Excellent book on the Arrow War and its economic ramifications on the British opium trade that the war tried to protect. Extensive notes and bibliography. One of the best books on Western imperialism in 19th-century Asia.

Dr. Sarotte has done something with this book that I did not think was possible. She has made the Cold War fresh. By looking at the Cold War from the perspective of Germany, rather than from the perspective of the superpowers, Dr. Sarotte has given us an inciteful window on the realities of Cold War international relations. She reminds us that it was not always the superpowers who were driving the course of the Cold War--an extremely important point to remember. Furthermore, she does it in a style that is both engaging and informative. I could not put the book down. I can't remember the last time I felt this way about a Cold War book!

Really is a brilliant gem this book; Bahu's style speaks for itself, completely lucid and absolutely no beating around the bush! This man defies our geneartions description of greatness, he transcends it, which is probable given his closeness to God; and God, transcends description, God is "the perfect balance, ever at peace, ever the same, man cals it God, even thogh it is too wondrous to be named, yet holy is its name and holy the tongue that keeps it holy" -Mirdad this is what Bahu seeks to convey, throught he medium of Love, and wonderfully powerful is his love for the lord, has to be read to be beleived. Elias does an excellent job of bringing the urdu meaning of Bahu brillinace across to english readers. A very very satisfying read, a book to be cherished and pased on for generations.

The Deathbed Playboy is a wonderful read. Dacey's tonal range is wide. The poems are smart, tender, and often funny. Smart, but not pedantic. Tender, but not gooey and manipulative. Funny, but not frivolous. The title poem, "The Deathbed Playboy," is a stunner. The tension between the humor and grief is palpable, and the funny and frantic reflections of the speaker are heartbreaking.

So many contemporary books of poetry sound like they were all ghost-written by one glib Writing Workshop star. Dacey has a distinctive voice. It's generous, sly, comic and wonderfully accessible. This one goes on my gift-giving list

This is an excellent and well-researched survey of US-Israeli relations between 1953 and 1962. Ben-Zvi recounts how at first the US Government sought to contain the supposed Soviet threat to the Middle East by uniting the nations of the region, and saw Israel as a hindrance to this.

But the anti-colonial revolutions of 1957-58 destroyed this policy. The US Government moved to support `moderate' Arab regimes against Arab nationalism. In April 1957, President Eisenhower sent the US 6th Fleet to help King Hussein of Jordan, and $30 million aid, after Hussein had dismissed the elected Government and declared martial law. Eisenhower then got Turkey, Iraq and Jordan to mobilise their armed forces against Syria, after nationalist forces gained power there.

In July 1958, the Iraqi people overthrew their pro-British Government. The US Government sent 14,000 troops to Lebanon to threaten Iraq, also to prevent revolution in Lebanon. The British Government sent 2,200 paratroops to Jordan to help Hussein: Israel allowed them to fly their troops in through Israeli airspace. This convinced the US Government that it should support Israel.

In August 1962, President Kennedy decided to sell Hawk anti-aircraft missiles to Israel, hoping it would then let the US inspect Israel's nuclear weapons facilities at Dimona and would allow 100,000-150,000 Palestinians to return home. Israel rejected both proposals, yet still got the Hawks.

This set a pattern for the next 35 years: Israel received huge military and economic support, but made no policy concessions. The US Government developed Israel as its military proxy in the Middle East, however unpopular this made Israel, and the USA. The costs to the region have been enormous: regular wars, the continual repression of the Palestinians, lack of political and economic progress. But this policy finally failed in the Gulf War, when the USA had to keep Israel out of the coalition against Iraq, for fear of wrecking it.

This is the best of a number of books that I have read that discuss the entire region - the writing style is accessible and the amount of information contained is quite comprehensive. Ten of my Hungarian, Slovak and Croatian friends who have borrowed my copy have pronounced it the best book on the region they had read in any language.