Riding the Back Roads of Empire Between Moscow and Beijing
by Jeffrey Tayler
A gripping journey through some of the planet's most remote and challenging terrain and its peoples, in search of why democracy has yet to thrive in lands it seemed so recently ready to overtake.
Across the largest landmass on earth, from Moscow to Beijing, in lands once conquered by Genghis Khan and exploited by ruthless Communist regimes, autocratic and dictatorial states are again arising, growing wealthy on petrodollars and low-cost manufacturing. More and more, they are challenging the West.
Media reports focus on developments in the two capitals, but the masses of people inhabiting the vast expanses in between remain mostly unseen and unheard, their daily lives and aspirations scarcely better known to us now than they were in Cold War days. Tayler finds, among many others, a dissident Cossack advocating mass beheadings, a Muslim in Kashgar calling on the United States to bomb Beijing, and Chinese youths in Urumqi desiring nothing more than sex, booze, and rock 'n' roll, all while confronting over and over again the contradiction of people who value liberty and the free market, but who worship and idealize tyrants who opposed both.
From the steppes of southern Russia to the conflict-ridden Caucasus Mountains to the deserts of Central Asia and northern China, Tayler shows that our maps have gone blank at the worst possible time.
"Tayler conveys his encounters in prose that is as richly textured as the stories he gathers in some of the remotest places imaginable." - Publishers Weekly.
"Tayler ventures at points into Colin Thubron and Robert Kaplan territory, returning with a satisfying narrative." - Kirkus Reviews.
This information about Murderers in Mausoleums was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Jeffrey Tayler is a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly and a contributor to Condé Nast Traveler, Harper's Magazine, and National Geographic. He is the author of many critically acclaimed books, including Facing the Congo, Angry Wind, and River of No Reprieve.

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