Claws of the Crab: Georgia and Armenia in Crisis [Hardcover]

Stephen Brook (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1993

Travel book about the disintegration and the rush for independence of the Soviet Union.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Brook visited the Caucasus during 1991-92 as its two newly independent republics, Georgia and Armenia, sought to stave off chaos. In Georgia, on the brink of civil war, President Zviad Gamsakhurdia's neofascist posturing and extreme nationalism, which had isolated the country and brought it to a cultural standstill, gave way to the more democratic policies of former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze, who chaired a ruling council to foster progressive government. In Armenia, Brook ( L.A. Lore ) found a proud, austere people whose homeland, pulverized by the 1988 earthquake, was further strained by an uprising in Nagorno-Karabakh (an Armenian enclave surrounded by Azerbaijan), by Azeri massacres and blockades, and by a diaspora that drew away much of Armenia's brightest people. This compelling blend of exotic travelogue and astute reporting delineates peoples of the former Soviet empire struggling to transform political hothouses into cohesive nation-states. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Trafalgar Square; 1St Edition edition (September 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1856191613
• ISBN-13: 978-1856191616
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,320,601 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #12 in Books > Travel > Asia > Georgia
  • #24 in Books > Travel > Asia > Armenia
  • #25 in Books > History > Asia > Georgia

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rare eyewitness account, August 12, 2001

By 

Andrew Barnard "r weaver" (belgium) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Claws of the Crab: Georgia and Armenia in Crisis (Picador) (Paperback)

Book Review

Brook, Stephen. Claws of the Crab: Georgia and Armenia in Crisis. Sinclair-Stevenson, 1992.

This is another treasure of a book about the Caucasus that I unearthed from the bowels of the Wandsworth Public Library system in south London. Only one other person had borrowed it, back in September 1999 when I was working in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi. Reading this book, I discovered that Stephen Brook had got there before me when all the exciting stuff was happening at the start of the nineties. Independence from the Soviet Union, the overthrow of the tyrannical president Zviad Gamsakhurdia and the battles for Nagorno Karabakh - Brook was there or thereabouts. Studiedly sympathetic to the Armenians and guardedly admiring of the Georgians, Claws of the Crab is a rare eyewitness account of many of the events that made independent Georgia and Armenia what they are today. Suffice to say that there's been remarkably little change since the book's completion in 1992.