There is an increasing tendency to give countries, especially developing countries and most particularly newly independent ones, “report cards” showing how well they’ve been doing and even to indicate their respective positions. Under these conditions, Kyrgyzstan might receive something like “needs improvement” or come in—more or less—in the second-to-bottom quarter. Shortly after it became independent in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kyrgyzstan was regarded as one of the more promising new states. But when the lessons it was obliged to learn were poorly digested (or perhaps the lessons themselves were poorly thought out), it gradually slipped and lost favor. More recently, however, this small country with a mixed population and limited natural resources has been making headway for many reasons: its political system and democracy, civil society, human rights, economic development, equality, and cooperation with the international community. It is much easier to understand Kyrgyzstan’s indifferent performance as an independent state with some insight into the previous decades and even centuries. The country began as a collection of tribes, and was then poorly absorbed and assimilated into the Russian Empire. Even before becoming an independent state, Kyrgyzstan was more or less rejected by its Soviet masters, classified as a semi-independent “republic.” Not many scholars have studied it, including its own, and not many have written about it; the country has for the most part been lumped together with the Russian and Soviet Empires, and even today normally appears just as part of the Central Asian Republics. So this Historical Dictionary of Kyrgyzstan is particularly welcome because it makes up for previous omissions and fills a gap by providing basic information in a readily usable format. The dictionary contains the standard entries on significant people, places, and events; organizations and institutions; ethnic and political groups; and salient aspects of the economy, society, and culture. Both the chronology and introduction are unusually helpful in providing an overview of the country’s often halting progress, and the bibliography supplies references in English and other languages.

Central Asia, known as the home of Tamerlane and the Silk Road, is a crossroads of great cultures and civilizations. In 1991 five new nations at the heart of the region--Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan--suddenly became independent. Today they sit strategically between Russia, China and Iran and hold some of the world's largest deposits of oil and natural gas. Ethnic and national identities formerly suppressed now find expression in language, religion, the arts, new international alignments and, occasionally, severe civil conflicts. In the decades ahead what kind of societies will the 50+ million people living in this very-old-and-very-new part of the world create? Single party secular states, Islamic republics, market democracies--something else? Civil Society in Central Asia is a pathbreaking collection of essays by scholars and activists that looks at some of the social and institutional developments which are shaping this important region's future. Are institutions emerging which create the foundations of a democratic order? As the essays suggest, trends are contradictory and not the same for each country. This timely book matches contributions by leading specialists such as S. Frederick Starr, Olivier Roy, Aziz Niyazi, Scott Horton, Alla Kazakina, Abdumannob Polat, and Reuel Hanks with the insights of individuals who have been on the front lines of the struggle for civil society in Central Asia itself--representatives of organizations such as Counterpart, Internews, and the Kazakstan International Bureau for Human Rights. Topics addressed are as diverse as the legal framework for independent associational activity, grassroots movements for environmental protection, the resurgence of Islam and the viability of the Soviet-era collective farms. A 75-page appendix provides a guide to many of the most significant projects being carried out by local and international NGOs in the region.

How did two of the world’s most populous countries emerge from a shared colonial legacy with radically divergent and historically enduring political regimes? Investigating that question has been my professional preoccupation for the last decade. That I have finally crafted an answer in the form of this book is a testament to the extraordinary support of a great many individuals and institutions. As such, I would be remiss not to acknowledge some of the hands that have steadied my progress and encouraged my spirits along the gratifying path to the book’s completion. The earliest seed of this project formed over a decade ago when I spent six months working in Dhaka for a microfinance organization. At the time, I was struck by the considerable political differences between Bangladesh and India, despite their common colonial legacy. The idea of systematically exploring the origins of these differences germinated during my enrollment in Atul Kohli’s graduate course the Comparative Political Economy of Development, at Princeton. This engaging and provocative course, which asked ambitious questions about the origins of worldwide patterns of economic development, charted the kind of bold intellectual terrain that inspired my enrollment in a political science doctoral program and that directly led to the writing of this book.

С января по июнь. - 1825. - 459 с.

В книге в сжатой форме излагается история Таиланда с древнейших времен до наших дней. Первобытнообщинный строй, возникновение первых государств, крупные государства эпохи средневековья, внутреннее развитие страны и борьба с европейской агрессией в новое время, своеобразие новейшего периода в развитии Таиланда и роль американского империализма во внешней политике этой страны после второй мировой войны — вот те основные вопросы таиландской истории, которые находят отражение в книге.

«Индия» Бируни (973 — 1048) — замечательный памятник науки стран азиатского Востока, содержащий важнейшие сведения о народах Индии, их обычаях, религии и философских системах, изложенные с глубоким знанием дела и поразительной для того времени объективностью. Сведения, приводимые в книге, полностью сохраняют свое значение и в наши дни как ценный фактический (исторический, этнографический и географический) материал, во многом уникальный и вполне надежный.

Настоящей книгой открыта серия исследований отдельных стран, куда было направлено внимание Института Прикладной Ботаники в поисков сортовых богатств. Ключи к решению интереснейших агрономических задач, как, например, происхождения земледелия, происхождения культурных растений и животных - находятся в мало исследованных древних странах Востока.

Сборник посвящен 2500-летию Иранского государства и содержит статьи ведущих советских иранистов, археологов, искусствоведов, филологов по проблемам древней истории и культуры Ирана, а также статьи, посвященные историческим и культурным связям Ирана и народов Средней Азии и Закавказья.

Английский ученый-китаист, один из крупнейших специалистов по эпохе Хань, автор ряда фундаментальных трудов, Майкл Лёве в яркой и доступной форме рассказывает об истории, правителях, политике, экономике, традициях, быте, архитектуре, искусстве и религии Древнего Китая династии Хань.

В книге излагается в сжатой форме история Филиппин с древнейших времен до наших дней. Исследуются особенности исторического развития Филиппин в древности и в средние века, рассматриваются основные этапы их истории в новое и новейшее время. Последние главы посвящены развитию страны после достижения независимости.