". . . the best study in English to date for an understanding of Georgian nationalism." —Religious Studies Review ". . . the standard account of Georgian history in English." —American Historical Review ". . . tour de force research . . . fascinating reading." —American Political Science Review Like the other republics floating free after the demise of the Soviet empire, the independent republic of Georgia is reinventing its past, recovering what had been forgotten or distorted during the long years of Russian and Soviet rule. Whether Georgia can successfully be transformed from a society rent by conflict into a pluralistic democratic nation will depend on Georgians rethinking their history. This is the first comprehensive treatment of Georgian history, from the ethnogenesis of the Georgians in the first millennium B.C., through the period of Russian and Soviet rule in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to the emergence of an independent republic in 1991, the ethnic and civil warfare that has ensued, and perspectives for Georgia's future.

The first comprehensive and objective history of the literature of Georgia, revealed to be unique among those of the former Byzantine and Russian empires, both in its quality and its 1500 years' history. It is examined in the context of the extraordinarily diverse influences which affected it - from Greek and Persian to Russian and modern European literature, and the folklore of the Caucasus.

A peer-reviewed open U.S. History Textbook released under a CC BY SA 3.0 Unported License.

The first full history of ancient Georgia ever to be written outside Georgia itself, this book also serves as a valuable introduction to the substantial archaeological work that has been carried out there in recent decades. Designed to open up ancient Georgia for the world of scholarship at large, it is not only a history of a neglected region, but also a sustained attempt to inform topics and issues that are more familiar to the historians of antiquity. Examples include myths of the periphery; Caucasian mountains and their passes; Greek colonization; the Persian, Athenian, and Selecuid empires; Pompey's conquest of Mithridates' empire; the development of the Roman frontier in the eastern Black Sea region; Roman diplomacy in Iberia; the Christianization of Iberia; Sassanian ambitions in Transcaucasia; and Byzantine warfare there.

From the eighteenth century to the eve of the Civil War, Georgia's racial order shifted from the somewhat fluid conception of race prevalent in the colonial era to the harsher understanding of racial difference prevalent in the antebellum era. In Cultivating Race: The Expansion of Slavery in Georgia, 1750--1860, Watson W. Jennison explores the centrality of race in the development of Georgia, arguing that long-term structural and demographic changes account for this transformation. Jennison traces the rise of rice cultivation and the plantation complex in low country Georgia in the mid-eighteenth century and charts the spread of slavery into the up country in the decades that followed. Cultivating Race examines the "cultivation" of race on two levels: race as a concept and reality that was created, and race as a distinct social order that emerged because of the specifics of crop cultivation. Using a variety of primary documents including newspapers, diaries, correspondence, and plantation records, Jennison offers an in-depth examination of the evolution of racism and racial ideology in the lower South.

"The introductory text of this book traces Georgia's long cultural history from its archaeological beginnings to the present. Twenty-three essays by scholars from all over the world give a vivid portrayal of Georgia's heritage in history, literature and manuscript production, archaeology and art throughout prehistoric, classical and Christian periods up to the Early Modern Era. Over 150 objects are presented and their range is vast: Neolithic ceramics, intricately worked Bronze and Iron Age gold and silver, Greek and Roman jewellery, richly illuminated manuscripts, medieval paintings, cloisonne enamel and gold repousse work, and embroidery are illustrated."--Jacket.