Beyond The Bosphorus British Drivers On The Middle East Routes

The Middle East has always been one of the most challenging destinations for lorry drivers. In the 1970s and 80s, many drivers may not have even heard of the destinations they were sent to before heading out eastwards. Along the way they endured extreme weather conditions, bureaucratic nightmares, and the physical trials of keeping themselves and their trucks operational over many thousands of miles of poorly maintained and dangerous roads. Their adventures have become legendary within the trucking world.In this book Dave Bowers tells with humour and insight the amazing stories of people driving to Middle East destinations, battling against all the odds to deliver their loads. The inspiration comes from his own experience through those routes and in particular on one adventurous journey homewards from Tehran in 1975, when he happened to be stranded in Iran, with no cash to speak of and spending many nights sleeping in abandoned trailers along the way. Dave travelled homewards after he was given lifts in trucks returning to Europe. These were driven by drivers who had many tales to tell, and this book was motivated by the need to keep these fascinating stories alive.Illustrated with photographs of the drivers and vehicles taken at the time, Beyond the Bosphorus records what it was like for ordinary HGV drivers to get involved in something so dramatically different from their everyday working lives in the UK. It will be of interest to lorry drivers, general vehicle enthusiasts and also those with a historical and social interest in the Middle East alike.

Many would argue that the 1980s were a better time for truck drivers than nowadays: there were no cell phones, there was less traffic on the road, CB radio was all the rage, and stickers were the simple heart of truck customizing. However, the transport industry is constantly evolving and companies must adapt their vehicles to keep pace with the developments. As a result, vehicle design and liveries regularly change. Many of the companies around in the 1980s have expired and been forgotten. Most of the trucks from that time are long gone to the great scrapyard in the sky! David Wakefield has been working in the transport industry for over 30 years and has been taking photographs of trucks since the early 1980s. He has amassed thousands of high-quality images, producing one of the most comprehensive photographic collections of the time, but many of his photographs have never been previously published. In this vivid compilation, Nick Ireland has collated 300 of David's images from the 1980s in order to preserve them and make them publicly available for the first time. The book features trucks from all over the world, and it is a must-have for current and former truckers who will enjoy being reminded of 'the good old days, ' as well as anyone else with an interest in transport history. [Subject: History, Transportation, Photography

True accounts of one man’s long-distance trucking career that began in the late 1960s, these adventurous anecdotes are told by one of the first pioneers in long-distance trucking to the Middle East, Ivor Whittall. From traveling overseas to Kuwait, driving the desert trek between Jordan and Saudi Arabia, and surviving the infamously dangerous (and sometimes deadly) Tahir Pass in Eastern Turkey that has claimed the lives of truckers with its haphazard landslides and avalanches and tricky mountainous terrain, readers get a driver’s seat perspective to Whittall’s daring career. With 72 contemporary color photos of trucks, drivers, passports, visas, and custom forms, readers will be thrust into what it was like being a long-distance trucker in the 1970s. Full of disastrous near misses, border control mishaps, intense home sickness, mechanical failures, cultural misunderstandings, and so much more, this book will urge you to buckle up.

In a world of rising tensions between Russia and the United States, the Middle East and Europe, Sunnis and Shiites, Islamism and liberalism, Turkey is at the epicentre. And at the heart of Turkey is its right-wing populist president, Recep Tayyip Erdo?an. Since 2002, Erdo?an has consolidated his hold on domestic politics while using military and diplomatic means to solidify Turkey as a regional power. His crackdown has been brutal and consistent - scores of journalists arrested, academics officially banned from leaving the country, university deans fired and many of the highest-ranking military officers arrested. In some senses, the nefarious and failed 2016 coup has given Erdo?an the licence to make good on his repeated promise to bring order and stability under a 'strongman'. Here, leading Turkish expert Soner Cagaptay will look at Erdo?an's roots in Turkish history, what he believes in and how he has cemented his rule, as well as what this means for the world. The book will also unpick the 'threats' Erdogan has worked to combat - from the liberal Turks to the Gulen movement, from coup plotters to Kurdish nationalists - all of which have culminated in the crisis of modern Turkey.

The Rough Guide to Turkey is a must for all discerning travellers heading to this fascinating country that straddles Europe and Asia. The most comprehensive and informed travel guide on the market, offering insightful coverage taking readers from the stunning trails of the Lycian Way on the Turquoise coast to the iconic dome of Aya Sofia, and from legendary sites such as Troy and Ephesus to the fairytale landscapes of Cappadocia. Packed with practical advice on everything from how to buy the finest kilims (rugs) to details on catching dolmuses, The Rough Guide to Turkey has all you need to find the best places to stay and eat, with trusted reviews you can rely on and options to suit all budgets. Complete with stunning photography, itineraries to help plan your trip and detailed maps to navigate your way through even the most maze-like towns, it's easy to see why The Rough Guide to Turkey is such an invaluable addition to your suitcase.

It all started in 1964 when two friends gave up promising medical careers to embark upon a journey which few hardened truckers would have considered. In so doing, they were solely responsible for creating the first long haul overland route, across Europe and deep into the Middle East to Kabul. The men had started the 'Middle East Run' was to become a phenomenon in the road haulage industry, an image which it still holds today. This book is about the company founded by one of those men, from its fledgling days as Asian Transport to the thriving Astran Cargo Services Ltd that it is today. In this book Ashley Coghill documents the complete history of the company to date with the focus predominantly on the early days when the men were fighting for something and revelling in the adventure. These early long haul drivers would think nothing of a 10,000 mile round trip to Iran or the Arabian Gulf and being stranded at 6,000 feet on a mountain pass with temperatures below -40 was just all in a day's work. Ashley Coghill has an immense enthusiasm for his subject and has given his research total dedication. He has also tracked down past and present employees to gather first hand information which he has illustrated with over 300 carefully selected images. The end result is a detailed, comprehensive and fascinating account of an extraordinary company.

The first book to weave Eurasia together through the perspective of the oceans and seas "A detailed account of the growing importance of the Chinese, Indian, and Russian navies and how this competition is playing out in waters stretching from the Indo-Pacific area to the Arctic and the Mediterranean."--Lawrence D. Freedman, Foreign Affairs Eurasia's emerging powers--India, China, and Russia--have increasingly embraced their maritime geographies as they have expanded and strengthened their economies, military capabilities, and global influence. Maritime Eurasia, a region that facilitates international commerce and contains some of the world's most strategic maritime chokepoints, has already caused a shift in the global political economy and challenged the dominance of the Atlantic world and the United States. Climate change is set to further affect global politics. With meticulous and comprehensive field research, Geoffrey Gresh considers how the melting of the Arctic ice cap will create new shipping lanes and exacerbate a contest for the control of Arctic natural resources. He explores as well the strategic maritime shifts under way from Europe to the Indian Ocean and Pacific Asia. The race for great power status and the earth's changing landscape, Gresh shows, are rapidly transforming Eurasia and thus creating a new world order.

A pathbreaking history of the development of scientific racism, white nationalism, and segregationist philanthropy in the U.S. and South Africa in the early twentieth century, Waste of a White Skin focuses on the American Carnegie Corporation’s study of race in South Africa, the Poor White Study, and its influence on the creation of apartheid. This book demonstrates the ways in which U.S. elites supported apartheid and Afrikaner Nationalism in the critical period prior to 1948 through philanthropic interventions and shaping scholarly knowledge production. Rather than comparing racial democracies and their engagement with scientific racism, Willoughby-Herard outlines the ways in which a racial regime of global whiteness constitutes domestic racial policies and in part animates black consciousness in seemingly disparate and discontinuous racial democracies. This book uses key paradigms in black political thought—black feminism, black internationalism, and the black radical tradition—to provide a rich account of poverty and work. Much of the scholarship on whiteness in South Africa overlooks the complex politics of white poverty and what they mean for the making of black political action and black people’s presence in the economic system. Ideal for students, scholars, and interested readers in areas related to U.S. History, African History, World History, Diaspora Studies, Race and Ethnicity, Sociology, Anthropology, and Political Science.