A Journal of the Disasters in Afghanistan: A Firsthand Account by One of the Few Survivors

This is quite a large volume and contains a great deal of detail that would be informative to the historian, but as a read - it is tough going. As the author declares at the start it is an unedited copy of her daily journal written under trying circumstances. The Journal clearly displays the confusion and poor command and well as the opaque political situation within Afghanistan. On the other hand, there is a great deal of assumed knowledge, which almost 200 years later, the average reader does not have an thus creates a difficulty in following the narrative which is compounded by the huge number of persons referenced throughout the journal, the similarity in Afghani titles, and the omissions from the journal of events that happen show more outside the author's knowledge.
That all said, the journal does give a great insight into the Daiy events in what is usually described in a brief few sentences in more general histories but I found the contrast of the the author's calm and understated Victorian "stiff upper lip" prose jarring when compared to the horrendous events that took place during this debacle.
This book as a 1st hand account is really only to be recommended for serious historical research purposes. show less