This is a comprehensive history of Georgia focusing not only on the post-Soviet era but on the full sweep of its turbulent past. The book describes Georgia's complex struggles with the many empires which have tried to control, fragment or even exterminate the country.

The emergence of the Kartvelians --The origins of the Kingdom of Kartli -- Conversion -- The Arab conquest -- Unification -- Davit the builder -- Demetre and Giorgi III -- Queen Tamar -- Mongol invasion -- The fractured state -- Timur Lang and the destruction of Georgia -- Fratricide -- King Teimuraz I -- Teimuraz dispossessed -- The eighteenth century -- The Russian conquest of Kartli-Kakhetia -- King Solomon's end -- Vice-regency -- Reaction and revolution -- Independence -- Soviet annexation -- After Stalin -- Independence restored.