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"In this insightful travelogue, geopolitical expert Robert Kaplan turns his perceptive eye to the Adriatic Sea, a region that has always been a crossroads in trade, culture, and ideas. Kaplan undertakes a journey through Italy and the Balkan countries lining the Adriatic to reveal much more to the region than news stories about resurgent populism or the refugee crisis let on. As he travels, the stark truth emerges that the age of populism is merely an epiphenomenon--a swan song for the age of nationalism itself--and that the future of Europe lies in a different direction entirely as he observes a breaking down of the distinctions between east and west, a return to alignments of an earlier era. Traveling the coastline from Italy to Slovenia and Croatia, to Montenegro to Albania and to Greece, he engages perceptive cultural criticism and an urgent study of Europe as a whole, seen through the lens of these countries. He finds clues to what the future may hold in history as he reflects on contemporary issues like the refugee crisis, the return of populist nationalism, battles over the control of fossil fuel resources, and how the Adriatic will once again be a global trading hub as it is set to be connected to China's Belt and Road initiative. With a cross-pollination of history, literature, art, architecture, and current events along with a map and photographs throughout, Kaplan demonstrates how Europe is distilled within the geography of the Adriatic, an often-overlooked region rich with answers and insights about the fate of the continent"--… (more)
User reviews
This is by no means an easy book to categorize—it is much more than a travelogue. Kaplan uses his location to ruminate on poetry (especially that of Ezra Pound), architecture, history, religion, and geopolitics. He also learns, and educates readers, through interviewing politicians, journalists, historians, and others as he travels.
Kaplan describes how the Adriatic over the last 1,000 years experienced a frequent shifting of the boundaries of three once powerful empires—Habsburg, Venetian, and Ottoman—and how that history still influences modern Europe. In particular, both Russia and China are making inroads in the region through significant investments in port facilities.
One criticism of Adriatic, voiced in a “New York Times” review by Thomas F. Madden in an otherwise very favorable article, is that Kaplan underestimates or gives short shrift to the role of the Venetian Empire in the history of the region. Maybe, but that can be remedied by reading William H. McNeill’s Venice: The Hinge of Europe, 1081-1797.
Evaluation: Adriatic is a highly readable and informative book on a fascinating part of the world.
(JAB)