The Making of the Georgian Nation

Suny is a renowned, respected and responsible scholar. He is a third generation American of Armenian descent, but this has nothing to do with some small-minded reviewers' paranoia about "Armenian propaganda". Even some of his Armenia-related books, such as "Looking Toward Ararat: Armenia in Modern History", are not wholeheartedly accepted in Armenia proper, because local scholars tend to consider Suny's views as being utterly Americanized and therefore to some extent detached from the Armenian reality. Readers need to understand that in a multi-ethnic society, such as Georgian, there will inevitably be people representing Georgian majority as well as non-Georgian minorities, who will exhibit distress and disappointment with this or that passage or chapter in the book. Readers should also be aware that the U.S.-based Association on the Study of Nationalities has included this book in the series of best publications on nationalities inhabiting the Eurasian landmass. For those who are anxious about an Armenian-American having written a book on Georgia, I, for one, would be interested in reading an alternative perspective by one of your own scholars who published a similar book in the U.S. Who could you recommend?

Ronald Suny presents the story of how the Georgia Republic became an independent nation. I worked for two years in Georgia and this book helped me understand Georgians, their pride in their culture and long history and their antipathy to Russia. Suny writes well --the book reads like a novel even though it is carefully researched.