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Loading... The Dark Defile: Britain's Catastrophic Invasion of Afghanistan, 1838-1842 (2012)by Diana Preston
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An account of the mid-nineteenth-century war in Afghanistan documents how the British government sought to protect regional interests by attempting to install a puppet ruler only to be defeated by united Afghanistan tribes. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)958.1History and Geography Asia Central Asia AfghanistanLC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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Drawing on published and unpublished documents (government reports and dispatches, letters and diaries, &c.), as well as on Afghan oral traditions and other sources, Preston has done a masterful job. It is, at times, not an easy book to read: the whole tale reads like something of a slow-motion train wreck, frankly, as misstep piles on misunderstanding, political and military blunders come fast and furious, and duplicitous acts on both sides lead to disastrous consequences and long-term regional instability.
Preston mostly refrains from making overt comparisons with the First Anglo-Afghan War to more current events, but the implications are clear. There were and are lessons to be learned from this conflict, and as she points out in the epilogue, some Afghan memories of this long-ago war are still surprisingly fresh (I don't want to spoil the book by recounting one particular anecdote, but it struck me quite strongly as I read).
Highly recommended.
http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2012/04/book-review-dark-defile.html ( )