Central Asia

If “Central Asia” conjures images of romantic Silk Road trading posts and endless steppe grasslands lost in time, Khalid’s new history is quick to straighten the record. This sweeping account offers an unapologetically modern history of the five post-Soviet Central Asian republics and Xinjiang, China, from the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Qing and Russian imperial takeovers to the present day. In Khalid’s estimation, “Imperial conquest thrust Central Asia into a new era of its history” (6). Yet this book is no mere chronicle of top-down imperial transformation. Rather, Khalid is primarily interested in how local populations—mostly elites, but ordinary citizens, too—responded to the challenges of imperial rule and enacted their own transformations on local societies, in differentiated and complex ways. In Khalid’s words, “We will see Central Asians arguing with each other as much as they argue with the Russians or Chinese” (9).After a brief introduction to Central Asia and its diverse history, Khalid divides the book into four temporal parts. The first part, “Empire,” traces the region’s conquests and subsequent integration into the Russian and Qing Empires, highlighting not only Central Asia’s final division into separate regimes but also contact across the Russian–Qing frontier. The second part, “Revolution,” covers the aftermath of imperial collapse, launching Central Asia into a period of uncertainty and accelerated change during which extensive cross-border connections continued. “Communism,” picks up after World War II and the 1949 revolution in China, a period that Khalid describes (uncritically) as a time “of actually existing Communism” (303). This period saw the increased integration of Soviet Central Asia and ccp-ruled Xinjiang into their respective states and, for the first time, a near complete break in cross-border links after the Sino-Soviet split. Finally, “Postcommunism” outlines changes since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and China’s more ambiguous economic liberalization under Deng Xiaoping in the 1980s. This period thrust the region into a globalizing world and produced different trajectories for post-Soviet and Chinese Central Asia.Although independence has enabled post-Soviet leaders to enter the international order and enact nationalizing policies domestically, Xinjiang has been increasingly tightly bound to China, with tragic consequences in light of the ongoing treatment of indigenous Muslim populations, the subject of the final chapter. Despite divergent paths, renewed cross-border contact has transformed relations between post-Soviet and Chinese Central Asia, as the latter emerges as the regional economic powerhouse.Khalid offers a synthetic history, drawing from recent scholarship that has transformed our view of Central Asia’s past. Nonetheless, one of the book’s principal strengths is Khalid’s command of primary sources, particularly the region’s diverse literary, cultural, and visual output. His close readings illustrate and develop central themes. For example, he analyzes the poetry of the Uzbek scholar Abdurauf Fitrat (1886–1938) to highlight changing ideas about the nation at a time of revolutionary upheaval (202–205). Likewise, he uses photographs of Uzbek families from the 1930s and 1983 to meditate on national and civic modes of identification (238, 341). Such forays, brief but consistently peppered throughout the text, add nuance, demonstrating the multiple and contested understandings of modernity among Central Asians. They should make the book of particular interest to those drawn to the region’s literary, religious, and intellectual history.Khalid’s comparison of Russian/Soviet and Chinese rule contributes theoretical and historical clarity, indicating when, how, and why the two parts of Central Asia converged and diverged throughout the last three centuries. Those new to Central Asia will find an elegant and timely introduction to the region’s history that describes broad political trajectories—often externally imposed—while keeping Central Asians in focus. The concluding bibliographical note provides an indispensable overview of scholarship and materials available in English for anyone seeking to learn more. The cover photograph, featuring schoolboys playing soccer in front of Bukhara’s imposing medieval fortress, perfectly encapsulates Khalid’s central message: Despite widespread stereotypes of Central Asia as out of step with time, Central Asians themselves continue to create their own meaning of their past, their modern conditions, and their unfolding futures

Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Central asia · China · Communism · Economic history · Empire · Frontier · Geography · Modern history · Period (music) · Political science · Politics · China's Ethnic Minorities and Relations · History · Law · Soviet and Russian History

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