Crimea

Product Description

Orlando Figes` ” Crimea” is a powerful history of the Crimean War, the conflict that dominated the nineteenth century. The Crimean War one of the fiercest battles in Russia`s history, killing nearly a million men & completely redrawing the map of Europe. Pitting the Tsar`s empire against an alliance of Britain, France & the Ottoman Empire, it was the first conflict to use photography, the telegraph & newspapers; a war over territory, from the Balkans to the Persian Gulf; a war of religion, driven by a fervent, populistbelief by the Tsar & his ministers that it was Russia`s task to rule all Orthodox Christians & control the Holy Land; it was the original `total war`. Orlando Figes` vivid new book reinterprets this extraordinary conflict. Bringing to life ordinary soldiers in snow-filled trenches, surgeons on the battlefield & the haunted, fanatical figure of Tsar Nicholas himself, ” Crimea” tells the human story of a tragic war. ” Lucid, well-written, alive & sensitive, it tells us why this neglected conflict & its forgotten victims deserve our remembrance”. (Oliver Bullough, ” Independent”). ” Figes paints a vivid portrait of a bloody & pointless conflict.. .he knows more about Russia than any other historian”. (Max Hastings, ” Sunday Times”). ”A fine, stirring account”. (Mark Bostridge, ” Financial Times”). ”A wonderful subject, on every level, & with Orlando Figes it has found the historian worthy of its width & depth”. (Norman Stone, ” Standpoint”). ” Figes is a first-class historian, as his splendid new book amply demonstrates”. (Dominic Sandbrook, ” Daily Telegraph”). Orlando Figes is Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London. He is the author of ” Peasant Russia”, ” Civil War”, ”A People`s Tragedy”, ” Natasha`s Dance”, ” The Whisperers” & ” Just Send Me Word”. His books have been translated into over twenty languages.