Afghanistan A Cultural And Political History
Stats for nerds
3recommend
3mentions
3people
2019–2020years
100% recommend
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Actually there were many more successful conquerors of Afganistan (Greco-Baktrian Kingdon, Mauryan Empire, Kushan Empire, Sassanian Empire, Ghaznavids, Mongol Empire, Timurid Empire, Mughal Empire and Safavid Empire to name just a few) then failed ones.
Alexander of Macedon[2], British, Soviets and now USA have failed because they all have had unrealistic objectives.
But Afghanistan had been ruled by "foreign" rulers for most of it's history. They all had one thing in common - they have kept multiple forces in balance and limited their rule to the capital.
> He shows how governing these peoples was relatively easy when power was concentrated in a small dynastic elite, but how this delicate political order broke down in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when Afghanistan's rulers mobilized rural militias to expel first the British and later the Soviets. Armed insurgency proved remarkably successful against the foreign occupiers, but it also undermined the Afghan government's authority and rendered the country ever more difficult to govern as time passed.
> Afghanistan is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how a land conquered and ruled by foreign dynasties for more than a thousand years became the "graveyard of empires" for the British and Soviets, and what the United States must do to avoid a similar fate.
Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History by Thomas Barfield [1]
[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7718203-afghanistan
> Recounting the plight of the most powerful leader of the time as he led the most sophisticated army of its day into the treacherous world of tribal warlords, Holt describes those grueling campaigns and the impact they had on Alexander, his generals, their troops, and the world. Into the Land of Bones also examines the conflict from the point of view of the local warlords who pushed the invading Greeks to the limits of their endurance—and sometimes beyond, into mania and mutiny.
[2] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1584212.Into_the_Land_of...
- Nonfiction/history: Afghanistan, a Cultural and Political History
https://www.amazon.com/Afghanistan-Cultural-Political-Prince...
The author is one of the leading American scholars on Afghanistan and provides fascinating and pertinent insight into the history of Afghanistan. Highly recommend if you want to understand how and why Afghanistan came to exist as it does today, and to gain insight and respect for its people, culture, their struggles, and the geopolitical significance of Afghanistan.
- You, sir, have a lot of reading to do. I'd start with a few histories of the region, then move into political theory.
May I recommend the following?
"Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History" by Thomas Barfield
