Like Sochi, a Black Sea resort north of the Caucasian Mountains, Neal Ascherson’s admired travelogue-cum-history of the Black Sea: Birthplace of Civilization and Barbarism celebrates its own Olympian Parade. Ascherson’s visits to cities, towns, villages and archaeological sites along the Black Sea prompt well-researched and fluidly written essays about the cavalcade of nations and ethnicities settling the region. The list is long: Scythians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, Goths, Huns, Turks, Venetians, Mongols aka The Golden Horde and Tartars, Genoese, Germans and Lithuanian […]

Categories: Tucker Cox, ZiR • Tags: reading, travel