China & Russia: Four Centuries of Conflict and Concord by Philip Snow Yale University Press, 624 pages, £25
The author of this remarkable new book has mastered a daunting range of sources spanning several centuries of Sino-Russian history to produce a lively and engaging narrative of a dense and troubled relationship. For historians used to thinking about Russian history and Chinese history as two distinct geographical traditions, here it is possible to understand the evolution of Eurasia, the area that has generated not one but two superpowers in the course of the past century.