This is a breathtaking first person account of an intrepid journey 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 inbetween remain mostly unseen and unheard, their daily lives and aspirations scarcely better known to us now than they were in the Cold War days. In his dramatic account, award winning travel writer Jeffrey 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 idealise tyrants who are opposed to 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. Jeffrey Tayler is an award winning travel writer, a correspondent for the Atlantic Monthly, and a frequent contributor to Conde Nast Traveler, Harper's Magazine, and National Geographic. He has written five books, most recently, River of White Nights: A Siberian River Odyssey.