some other Book Recommendations & Reviews

[beoram]

Peter Hopkirk. The Great Game: On Secret Service in High Asia. London: John Murray, 1990. [reprinted in the UK under the same title by Oxford University Press, 2001 & published in USA under the title: The Great Game: the struggle for empire in Central Asia. New York, Toyko, London: Kodansha, 1994.]

Buy The Great Game in USA - Amazon

Buy The Great Game in UK - Amazon.co.uk


I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of Central Asia over the last few centuries. The central point of which is Afghanistan.... The back of my copy has an editorial quote from The Atlantic: 'A curious, almost eerie foreshadowing of recent history...'. And this review was from the early 90s, well before any of the more recent events in Afghanistan...

Basically, during the early days of the British Raj in India until the Russian revolution, Britain and Russia were involved in a complex web of espionage concerning Central Asia - Afghanistan, Iran (Persia), Kazakstan, Tajikistan, etc. Russia was trying to build her own empire and extend her borders into Asia, and Britain was at some pains to try to keep a good buffer-zone between British India and Russia.

And this is the setting for 'The Great Game', what came to be the British name for the Britain vs. Russia spying and vying over Central Asia.

It is interesting, though sad, that Afghanistan has been the focus and often battleground for various oppositions of world powers again and again over the past few centuries.

It is long book, over 500 pages, but not only informative but quite a good read as well as it is filled with almost fictional-sounding (but true) stories of British and Russian spies, as well as battles, sieges, etc., etc.

Gurkhas make a few brief apparences in the book as well. And 'The Great Game' is part of the backdrop for R. Kipling's <i>Kim</i> (a book I read as a child and have continued to reread and enjoy since as well).

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Another book which is worth a look (though I don't recommend it as highly as I recommend the Hopkirk book) is:

Byron Farwell. Armies of the Raj - from the Great Indian Mutiny to Independence: 1858-1947. New York: Norton, 1989.

Buy Armies of the Raj in USA - Amazon

Buy Armies of the Raj in UK - Amazon.co.uk

basic overview of the British Indian armed forces between 1858-1947. since it covers such a great time span, it doesn't go into any great detail on any one subject or time, but is a good book overall and interesting. And also deals briefly with Gurkhas as part of its survey.

Farwell has also written at least 1 book on Gurkhas

 

[JDP]

You might want to read KHYBER by Chas. Miller. Written in 1977 it proves that no one can ever "win" in Afghanistan. Attempting to unite or change an ingrained tradition where murder, corruption, deceit and cruelty is a way of life is absolute folly. It plots the hundreds of years of British attempts to rule an unruleable area of the world dominated by an unbending religion and tribal mindset. There are a lot more defeats than true victories.

Should have been on the must read list for the Russians and definitely for us.

 

[beoram]

Thanks for the additional recommendation John.

From reading the Hopkirk book, one forms this impression - that no-one can ever 'win' in Afghanistan...including Afghans themselves! I don't think any Kabul-based government has ever been very successful in controlling/governing very far outside of the city limits of Kabul itself.

And in addition to the ingrained tradition amongst some of the Afghan tribes of murder, dacoitry, etc. (against other inhabitants of Afghanistan as well as foreigners), the terrion of Afghanistan makes it very difficult to control - as has been experienced by different peoples over the years - British, Russians, and now Americans and British (again).

 

[JDP]

Except for its tactical position on the globe this country has no redeeming features.

 

[foxjaw]

Afghanistan is like Vietnam.
Nobody won, especially the Vietnamese

 

[firkin]

From my experiments directed by an Afghani cookbook, and a few visits to restaurants, they have developed a tasty and interesting cuisine.

As far as I can tell the full price for trying to arbritrarily carve "countries" out of a dynamic patchwork of tribes is yet to be paid.

It's my impression that several areas that were part of the silk road trading route never recovered from it's replacement.

 

[Bill Martino]

It's my impression that several areas that were part of the silk road trading route never recovered from it's replacement.

I'll drink to that.