Silk Road to Ruin: Is Central Asia the New Middle East? Book

Rall is a long time editorial cartoonist. In the mid-1990s a magazine agreed to pay to send him along the Silk Road from China to Turkey through the former Soviet countries of Central Asia. That became a graphic novella included in this book, along with more details in the text. Around the same time he also had an independent radio program, "Stan Watch" which reported stories out of the Central Asia countries Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, etc. He and some dedicated followers took a trip to a few of those same countries, another graphic novella included in this book. After September 11 another magazine sent him to report on terrorism in the area, since the borders between those Middle Eastern "stans" and the Central Asia ones are just lines on a map. The American government even sent him on a diplomatic visit to explain a free press to the slightly less than completely repressive dictatorships (as opposed to the fully repressive dictatorships next door.) Finally one more magazine sent him back to report on the "world" finals of an ancient, local and occasionally deadly blood sport that is keeping close ties and respected rivalries between the nations and tribes. These stories are either fully illustrated novellas or include panel cartoons, photographs, and maps to expand upon the text.

There is a lot of information covering a lot of years. I certainly knew little of these countries and their recent history, but I definitely have heard about some of the conflicts and American (and Russian and Chinese) interests in the area so the insight Rall's stories and reporting provides is useful. There is political information, history, environmental concerns and cultural facts. Taking reports from so many years causes some repetition of information but the book is too dense to read straight through so the reminders are more useful than irritating.