
Adriatic
A Concert of Civilizations at the End of the Modern Age
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Narrated by:
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Arthur Morey
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By:
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Robert D. Kaplan
“[An] elegantly layered exploration of Europe’s past and future . . . a multifaceted masterpiece.”—The Wall Street Journal
“A lovely, personal journey around the Adriatic, in which Robert Kaplan revisits places and peoples he first encountered decades ago.”—Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The New Yorker
In this insightful travelogue, Robert D. Kaplan, geopolitical expert and bestselling author of Balkan Ghosts and The Revenge of Geography, turns his perceptive eye to a region that for centuries has been a meeting point of cultures, trade, and ideas. He undertakes a journey around the Adriatic Sea, through Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, and Greece, to reveal that far more is happening in the region than most news stories let on. Often overlooked, the Adriatic is in fact at the center of the most significant challenges of our time, including the rise of populist politics, the refugee crisis, and battles over the control of energy resources. And it is once again becoming a global trading hub that will determine Europe’s relationship with the rest of the world as China and Russia compete for dominance in its ports.
Kaplan explores how the region has changed over his three decades of observing it as a journalist. He finds that to understand both the historical and contemporary Adriatic is to gain a window on the future of Europe as a whole, and he unearths a stark truth: The era of populism is an epiphenomenon—a symptom of the age of nationalism coming to an end. Instead, the continent is returning to alignments of the early modern era as distinctions between East and West meet and break down within the Adriatic countries and ultimately throughout Europe.
With a brilliant cross-pollination of history, literature, art, architecture, and current events, in Adriatic, Kaplan demonstrates that this unique region that exists at the intersection of civilizations holds revelatory truths for the future of global affairs.
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Critic reviews
“An excellent exploration of the Adriatic’s intriguing geographic and intellectual landscapes . . . The historical scope of Kaplan’s canvas is vast, yet he works hard to bring to it the fruits of modern historical scholarship. That is rare among popular authors, and deserves much praise.”—The New York Times
“[An] elegantly layered exploration of Europe’s past and future . . . Like the best European travelogues—the wandering, inquisitive weavings of Rebecca West’s Black Lamb and Grey Falcon (1941) or Patrick Leigh Fermor’s Between the Woods and the Water (1986)—Adriatic mimics the layered complexity of its subject. This is a multifaceted masterpiece, a glittering excavation of the glories and rubbish heaps of Europe’s past, a meditation on history and the inner journey of traveling with books in mind, a traveler’s elegy for paths taken and not taken, and a conditionally hopeful reflection on Europe’s emerging future.”—The Wall Street Journal
“A marvelous mix of history, literature, atmospherics, and personal insight . . . [Kaplan] travels to learn rather than to simply confirm, which makes him the ideal guide for readers interested in expanding their understanding rather than reinforcing their assumptions. . . . Europe is back, and Kaplan’s erudite and humane study offers an exemplary guide to it.”—The National Interest
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Antiques brought to life
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Good Observations and Hidden Gems
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That said, there are LOTS of tangents, usually almost stream of consciousness ruminations that take away from the specific location(s) discussed in a five chapter. The conversations he has with locals are not as in depth as those in Balkan Ghosts, which I think would have made this a much better book. Still found great value in the history and insights by such a well travelled and (at least in this work) self-aware author.
Insightful but littered with tangents
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love Robert Kaplan
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Broad Regional Knowledge
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This is
Pondering writer; ponderous narrator
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Instead it is a confused pile of pseudo philosophical ideas, made of tons of unrelated footnotes taken from everywhere in the world except from the Adriatic world context.
Struggled for few hours trying to find the purpose of all of it but finally gave up.
Boring pile of unrelated personal notes
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Then there is this book. What is the purpose of the book ? A historical summary ? Personal travel memoir ? A philosophical musing ? A travel guide ? It tries to be all these things and it doesn't work. If this book was meant to be un update to the book Balkan Ghosts, it failed miserably.
Parts of this book are really very good. Too many are not. It is a disjointed, unfocused rambling and sometimes incoherent book.
All it's weaknesses are magnified by the poor narration.
What is it trying to do ?
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Disappointing
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