A Best Book of the Year: "The Economist," "Slate," "Kirkus
Reviews"
In 1839, nearly 20,000 British troops poured through the mountain
passes into Afghanistan and installed the exiled Shah Shuja on the
throne as their puppet. But after little more than two years, the
Afghans exploded into rebellion. The British were forced to
retreat--and were then ambushed in the mountains by simply-equipped
Afghan tribesmen. Just one British man made it through. But
Dalrymple takes us beyond the story of this colonial humiliation
and illuminates the key connections between then and now. Shah
Shuja and President Hamid Karzai share the same tribal heritage;
the Shah's principal opponents were the Ghilzai tribe, who today
make up the bulk of the Taliban's foot soldiers. Dalrymple explains
the byzantine complexity of Afghanistan's age-old tribal rivalries,
their stranglehold on politics, and how they ensnared both the
British of the nineteenth century and NATO forces today. Rich with
newly discovered primary sources, this stunning narrative is the
definitive account of the first battle for Afghanistan.
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