Postcards from Stanland
Subtitle: journeys in Central Asia
By: David H. Mould
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 310
ISBN-13: 9780821421765; 9780821421772
Subjects: Social conditions; Post-communism; Travel; Description and travel; Social life and customs
Description: "Central Asia has long stood at the crossroads of history. It was the staging ground for the armies of the Mongol Empire, for the nineteenth-century struggle between the Russian and British empires, and for the NATO campaign in Afghanistan. Today, multinationals and nations compete for the oil and gas reserves of the Caspian Sea and for control of the pipelines. Yet 'Stanland' is still, to many, a terra incognita, a geographical blank. Beginning in the mid-1990s, academic and journalist David Mould's career took him to the region on Fulbright Fellowships and contracts as a media trainer and consultant for UNESCO and USAID, among others. In Postcards from Stanland, he takes readers along with him on his encounters with the people, landscapes, and customs of the diverse countries--Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan--he came to love. He talks with teachers, students, politicians, environmental activists, bloggers, cab drivers, merchants, Peace Corps volunteers, and more. Until now, few books for a nonspecialist readership have been written on the region, and while Mould brings his own considerable expertise to bear on his account--for example, he is one of the few scholars to have conducted research on post-Soviet media in the region--the book is above all a tapestry of place and a valuable contribution to our understanding of the post-Soviet world"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Travels in "Kyrzakhstan"; title: Sacred mountain and silly borders; title: How do you say "rump roast"?; title: Kasha, honor, dignity, and revolution; title: On and off the silk road; title: To be a Kazakh is to be "brave and free"; title: Father of apples; title: The President's dream city; title: Coal and steel; title: No polygon, no problem; title: wheat and oil; title: the seven lessons from Stanland.