Books about Kazakhstan from Amazon.com

A funny and revealing travelogue of Kazakhstan, a country rich with wild tulips, oil, nomads who hunt with golden eagles, and a disappearing landlocked sea.

Closed to foreigners under Tsar and Soviet rule, Kazakhstan has remained largely hidden from the world, a remarkable feat for a country the size of Western Europe. Few would guess that Kazakhstan—a blank in Westerners' collective geography—turns out to be diverse, tolerant, and surprisingly modern, the country that gave the world apples, trousers, and even, perhaps, King Arthur.

Christopher Robbins enjoyed unprecedented access to the Kazakh president while crafting this travelogue, and he relates a story by turns hilarious and grim. He finds Eminem-worship by a shrinking Aral Sea, hears the Kazakh John Lennon play in a dusty desert town, joins nomads hunting eagles, eats boiled sheep's head (a delicacy), and explores some of the most beautiful, unspoiled places on earth. Observant and culturally attuned, Robbins is a master stylist in the tradition of travel writing as literature, a companion to V. S. Naipaul and Paul Theroux..
Price: $12.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Remote, forbidding, and volatile, the Caspian Sea long tantalized the world with its vast oil reserves But outsiders, blocked by the closed Soviet system, couldn’t get to it. Then the Soviet Union collapsed, and a wholesale rush into the region erupted Along with oilmen, representatives of the world’s leading nations flocked to the Caspian for a share of the thirty billion barrels of proven oil reserves at stake, and a tense geopolitical struggle began. The main players were Moscow and Washington–the former seeking to retain control of its satellite states, and the latter intent on dislodging Russia to the benefit of the West.
The Oil and the Glory is the gripping account of this latest phase in the epochal struggle for control of the earth’s “black gold.” Steve LeVine, who was based in the region for The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Newsweek, weaves an astonishing tale of high-stakes political gamesmanship, greed, and scandal, set in one of the most opaque corners of the world. In LeVine’s telling, the world’s energy giants jockey for position in the rich Kazakh and Azeri oilfields, while superpowers seek to gain a strategic foothold in the region and to keep each other in check. At the heart of the story is the contest to build and operate energy pipelines out of the landlocked region, the key to controlling the Caspian and its oil. The oil pipeline that resulted, the longest in the world, is among Washington’s greatest foreign policy triumphs in at least a decade and a half.
Along the way, LeVine introduces such players as James Giffen, an American moneyman who was also the political “fixer” for oil companies eager to do business on the Caspian and the broker for Kazakhstan’s president and ministers; John Deuss, the flamboyant Dutch oil trader who won big but lost even bigger; Heydar Aliyev, the oft-misunderstood Azeri president who transcended his past as a Soviet Politburo member and masterminded a scheme to loosen Russian control over its former colonies in the Caspian region; and all manner of rogues, adventurers, and others drawn by the irresistible pull of untold riches and the possible “final frontier” of the fossil-fuel era. The broader story is of the geopolitical questions of the Caspian oil bonanza, such as whether Russia can be a trusted ally and trading partner with the West, and what Washington’s entry into this important but chaotic region will mean for its long-term stability.
In an intense and suspenseful narrative, The Oil and the Glory is the definitive chronicle of events that are understood by few, but whose political and economic impact will be both profound and lasting.

"The collapse of the Soviet Union was a big opportunity for Big Oil, whose exploits are detailed in this fast-paced work of political and economic reportage by Wall Street Journal energy correspondent LeVine.
Westerners had been sniffing for black gold in Russia and its satellites long before the empire disintegrated, notes the author. Averell Harriman, “the Harvard-trained scion of nineteenth-century robber baron Edward Harriman,” tried his hand at the business before turning to manganese mining, while Armand Hammer “became a money launderer for the Bolsheviks, sneaked cash to secret Bolshevik agents in the United States, and profited handsomely as the representative in Russia of some thirty American companies.” Hammer set the tone for the Americans who flocked to the Caspian in the first years of the Clinton presidency, which maneuvered for the construction of an east-west oil pipeline that, by reversing the old pattern of Central Asian materials going north to Russia and coming back as products for sale, “would favor the West and disfavor Russia.” Not a nice way to treat a fledgling democracy, but the oil scouts, of course, considered Russia a rival for Central-Asian resources second only to Iran, with its heartfelt and long-standing enmity toward the United States in the region and abroad. These scouts–the first among equals being LeVine’s heart-of-darkness antihero, Jim Giffen–kept their distance when Russia still had control over the area, spurning a Gorbachev-era program to allow foreign co-ownership. But they rushed to support separatist movements and encouraged ethnic and political divisions that opened the door to an even bigger share of the wealth. The tale of Giffen’s rise and fall (the latter for perhaps surprising reasons) occupies much of the later pages, but he never loses sight of the bigger picture: namely, Central Asia as oil lamp and potential powder keg in the realpolitik of the next few years.
A complex story rendered comprehensible, with much drama and intrigue."--KIRKUS.
Price: $14.73 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This Book Really Is a Very Nice!
Tug on your snuggest swimsuit and get your papers in order: (in)famous international sojourner Borat Sagdiyev is here with the travel book of the year, BORAT: Touristic Guidings to Minor Nation of U.S. and A. and Touristic Guidings to Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. Packed with helpful tips, BORAT offers off-the-beaten-path recommendations and "will instruct you on all you needing know" for your next family vacation, be it at home or abroad. Check out these images from the book:

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Price: $11.49 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Adopting a child can be one of life's most rewarding experiences. Unfortunately, complex policies, legal risks, and fewer available children make adopting domestically difficult International adoption offers a solution to parents yearning for a child of their own.

American parents are now adopting over 5000 children a year from Russia and Eastern Europe. John Maclean's The Russian Adoption Handbook is a comprehensive guide to adopting a child from overseas.

From the pitfalls to the practical, the rewards to the risks, The Russian Adoption Handbook leads parents through the maze of:

• How the international adoption process works.
• How to start the process.
• What you need to know before traveling to Russia and Eastern Europe.
• Making the most out of your trip--the inside scoop on customs, hotels, and food.
• The children's homes, the courts, and the questions that need to be asked.
• Medical issues, special adoption doctors, and travel requirements.
• Post adoption procedures, and much, much more.

Practical, accurate, and written with a father's sense of humor, The Russian Adoption Handbook is the most comprehensive and up-to-date guide to adoption yet.

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Price: $14.75 [Notify me when price goes down.]

A country larger than Western Europe, Kazakhstan's vast expanse encompasses the Great Steppe, across which Genghis Khan's Mongol hordes galloped; the heights of the Tien Shan in the south, through whose foothills Silk Road travelers journeyed; the exquisite lakes and valleys of the Altai mountains in the northeast, and in the far west the archeologically rich desert coast of the Caspian Sea. With independence and the discovery of oil has come huge change, yet Kazakhstan remained one of the least known of Asian countries until the Borat movie took the world by storm in 2006. Now, this land of rich history, welcoming people and whirling bazaars shares its wonders with a curious world.

• First dedicated English language guide to Kazakhstan—a huge and diverse country
• The "Borat" phenomenon and its double-edged effect
• Baikonur, Genghis Khan, Tamerlane and the Silk Road
• The future of Kazakhstan's energy resources
• Investment potential for businessmen
• Kazakhstan's archeological wealth
• Architecture from Astana to Almaty to Aktau
• Holidays by the Caspian Sea
• Superb photography from the grandeur of the Tien Shan and Altai mountains across the Great Steppe to the Caspian Sea
• 126 color photos and 9 maps & plans.
Price: $18.91 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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Price: $10.10 [Notify me when price goes down.]

This folded tourist and road map of Kazakhstan also includes the surrounding countries of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan The map features shaded-relief and elevation tinting. Major and minor roads are depicted along with railways, distance in kilometers, state boundaries (& disputed boundaries), airports, historical sites, point of interest, and natural features. Index of placenames is on reverse side of map. Legend in 5 languages: English, German, French, Russian, and Kazakh. Scale is 1:3 million..
Price: $12.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Soon after the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Keith Rosten leaves the United States to be a Fulbright Lecturer in newlyindependent Kazakhstan In Once in Kazakhstan, Rosten draws a sometimes humorous portrait of a critical period in the emergence of this Central Asian country, interweaving the challenges and exhilaration of living in Kazakhstan with the historical backdrop of a nation grappling with its independence.

From horse heads in the Central Market, to guns on the ski slopes, and to the first-ever parliamentary elections, Rosten takes you on a whirlwind tour of the country. He vividly recounts the change in currency from the Soviet ruble to the tenge and travels with a candidate for parliament to a rural village near Semipalatinsk.

Using his knowledge of local language and customs, Rosten provides access to native sources on the history, politics, traditions, and spirit of Kazakhstan. Complete with photographs of the people, places, and monuments of the country, Once in Kazakhstan is an invaluable resource for anyone who is interested in learning more about, or traveling to, the fascinating landscape of this emerging nation.

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Price: $12.77 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Folded waterproof road and travel map in color. Scale 1:2,300,000. Distinguishes roads ranging from motorways to tracks. Legend shows state/administrative boundaries, shipping routes, railways, National Parks/nature reserves, UNESCO nature reserves, passes, lakes, swamps, glaciers, salt flats, deserts, ports, international/regional airports, points of interest, campsites, museums, fortresses, mosques, churches. Legend for inset map shows hotels, banks, churches, restaurants/cafes, railway stations, monuments, other points of interest. Includes inset of Almaty. Legend in 2 languages, including English..
Price: $8.39 [Notify me when price goes down.]