TSentralnaya Aziya do sih por neredko vosprinimaetsya kak otdalennaya territoriya, nahodyaschayasya «na periferii» sovremennoy istorii. No na dele etot region, v kotorom raspolozheny Uzbekistan, Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazahstan, a takzhe kitayskaya provintsiya Sintszyan, stoit na perekrestke mirovyh sobytiy. Adib Halid predstavlyaet pervuyu vseobemlyuschuyu istoriyu Tsentralnoy Azii s serediny XVIII veka do nashih dney. Posle 1700-h godov narody regiona popali pod vlast Rossii i Kitaya. Amerikanskiy uchenyy-istorik pakistanskogo proishozhdeniya, Halid pokazyvaet, kak inostrannoe zavoevanie vovleklo zhiteley Tsentralnoy Azii v globalnyy obmen tovarami i ideyami i privelo k ustanovleniyu bolee tesnyh svyazey s ostalnym mirom. V fokuse ego issledovaniya i to, kak imperii-zavoevatelnitsy, a potom kommunisticheskie gosudarstva SSSR i KNR spravlyalis s etnicheskoy neodnorodnostyu regiona, s prisuschimi emu natsionalnymi i kulturnymi razlichiyami, a takzhe to, kak istoricheskie sily i trendy, ot kolonializma i sotsialnyh revolyutsiy do natsionalizma i gosudarstvennoy politiki modernizatsii, sformirovali sovremennyy oblik TSentralnoy Azii.
