Review of Donald Rayfield, 'Edge of Empires. A History of Georgia' & Corrigenda to Stephen Jones’ 'Georgia. A Political History Since Independence'
In 2012 two books were published by British scholars dealing with the history of Georgia.
Donald Rayfield, Emeritus professor of Queen Mary, University of London, complemented his Literature of Georgia: a History with: Edge of Empires. A History of Georgia, London: Reaktion Books, 2012, 479 pp, £35 (hardback).
Stephen Jones has for many years worked at Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, USA. His book is: Georgia. A Political History Since Independence. I.B. Tauris, London, England, and New York, USA, 2012. xxii + 376 pp. Maps. Index. £35 (hardback).
Both these works include references to Abkhazia and, in this respect at least, are open to criticism. George Hewitt has written reviews of both publications. His lengthy critique of Rayfield’s book is too long to appear in Central Asian Survey, where a short version will appear, but it is reproduced here in full. As for his review of Jones, it will be published in the Slavonic and East European Review (SEER). The main defect in Jones’ coverage of Abkhazia is that he chose to take as his source for late-/post-Soviet events in the republic Svetlana Chervonnaja’s Conflict in the Caucasus, a vanity-publication from 1994 replete with pro-Georgian propaganda. Hardly anything further needs to be said, though, as the errata-list that he appended to his review will not appear in SEER, that too is presented below.
Review of Donald Rayfield's 'Edge of Empires. A History of Georgia'
Corrigenda to Stephen Jones’ 'Georgia. A Political History Since Independence'
By George Hewitt
Professor of Caucasian languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies