Such names as Toynbee, Gibbon, Strabo, and Herodotus are invoked to give a certain gravity to the prose, while other names, such as Daniel Pipes, Olivier Roy, and Ronald Suny, are meant to assure the reader of the academic rigor and policy relevance of the analytical interpretations. Kaplan reinforces these narrative devices by interviews with senior officials and influential thinkers in each of the countries he visits. As a travel writer, Robert Kaplan is near the top in current American literature, yet for the reader who wishes to extract more than entertainment from Eastward to Tartary, a note of caution is in order. A travelogue can be truthful without being accurate. Inductive reasoning is correct only if the specific truth of the part is applicable to the whole.
Local anecdotes are instructive when balanced or placed in context by the author.
Yet, Eastward to Tartary fails to pass these tests in too many places. For example, Kaplan contrasts the impact of organized crime on the political and economic development of Bulgaria with that on other Soviet-bloc states. Nor are there the colorful ethnic ingredients here that distinguish criminal circles in the Caucasus, particularly Georgia and Chechnya, with their family mafias and highwaymen. The comparison between time's legacy in the southern Balkans and in the Caucasus is also indicative of Kaplan's theoretical inconsistencies. Some modern events appear inextricably rooted in the hoary past of tribal identities and imperial politics while others are not.