Two decades on from 9/11, the Taliban now control more than half of Afghanistan. Few would have foreseen such an outcome, and there is little understanding of how Afghans living in Taliban territory have navigated life under insurgent rule. Based on over 400 interviews with Taliban and civilians, this book tells the story of how civilians have not only bargained with the Taliban for their survival, but also ultimately influenced the course of the war in Afghanistan. While the Taliban have the power of violence on their side, they nonetheless need civilians to comply with their authority. Both strategically and by necessity, civilians have leveraged this reliance on their obedience in order to influence Taliban behaviour. Challenging prevailing beliefs about civilians in wartime, Negotiating Survival presents a new model for understanding how civilian agency can shape the conduct of insurgencies. It also provides timely insights into Taliban strategy and objectives, explaining how the organisation has so nearly triumphed on the battlefield and in peace talks. While Afghanistan's future is deeply unpredictable, there is one certainty: it is as critical as ever to understand the Taliban--and how civilians survive their rule.

'Ashley Jackson The Yorkshire Artist' contains a collection of paintings that have been personally chosen by the artist to bring together his personal memories and intimate reflections of the emotions and atmosphere that he has captured in each watercolour painting. As he explains, 'All artists paint what inspires them, what allows them to capture what they see with their eyes with their hands and heart. We all have differing inspirations, mediums and connections with our subject mine is the Yorkshire Moors.' From the open moorland of Marsden Moor to the inhabited landscape of Whitby, this book brims with what Ashley does best; capturing the atmospheric skies and drama of the landscape. As Ashley explains, 'I have strived throughout my life to witness and portray every mood swing of nature as she takes a stand against all that the elements throw at her, whether that be rain, wind, snow or fire.' You will truly find Ashley Jackson and his 'Yorkshire Mistress', as he calls the Yorkshire landscape, laid bare in these stunning paintings.

In 1939 Hitler went to war not just with Great Britain; he also went to war with the whole of the British Empire, the greatest empire that there had ever been. In the years since 1945 that empire has disappeared, and the crucial fact that the British Empire fought together as a whole during the war has been forgotten. All the parts of the empire joined the struggle and were involved in it from the beginning, undergoing huge changes and sometimes suffering great losses as a result. The war in the desert, the defence of Malta and the Malayan campaign, and the contribution of the empire as a whole in terms of supplies, communications and troops, all reflect the strategic importance of Britain's imperial status. Men and women not only from Australia, New Zealand and India but from many parts of Africa and the Middle East all played their part. Winston Churchill saw the war throughout in imperial terms. The British Empire and the Second World War emphasises a central fact about the Second World War that is often forgotten.

This book explores lesser known theatres of war such as Korea, Thailand and Zambia Jackson is one of the leading modern military historians in the United Kingdom The book explores key issues such as neutrality and colonialism in the context of the Second World War

Explores the culturally complex and cosmopolitan histories of islands off the African coast Islands and island chains like Cabo Verde, Madagascar, and Bioko are often sidelined in contemporary understandings of Africa in which mainland nation-states take center stage in the crafting of historical narratives. Yet in the modern period, these small offshore spaces have often played important if inconsistent roles in facilitating intra- and intercontinental exchanges that have had lasting effects on the cultural, economic, and political landscape of Africa. In African Islands: Leading Edges of Empire and Globalism, contributors argue for the importance of Africa's islands in integrating the continent into wider networks of trade and migration that links it with Asia, Europe, and the Americas. Essays consider the cosmopolitan and culturally complex identities of Africa's islands, analyzing the process and extent to which trade, slavery, and migration bonded African elements with Asian, Arabic, and European characteristics over the years. While the continental and island nations have experienced similar cycles of invasion, boom, and bust, essayists note both similarities and striking differences in how these events precipitated economic changes in the different geographic areas. This book, a much-needed broadly comparative study of the African islands, will be an important resource for students and scholars of the region and of topics such as colonialism, economic history, and cultural hybridity.

The British Empire played a crucial part in the First World War, supplying hundreds of thousands of soldiers and labourers as well as a range of essential resources, from foodstuffs to minerals, mules, and munitions. In turn, many imperial territories were deeply affected by wartime phenomena, such as inflation, food shortages, combat, and the presence of large numbers of foreign troops. This collection offers a comprehensive selection of essays illuminating the extent of the Empire's war contribution and experience, and the richness of scholarly research on the subject. Whether supporting British military operations, aiding the British imperial economy, or experiencing significant wartime effects on the home fronts of the Empire, the war had a profound impact on the colonies and their people. The chapters in this volume were originally published in Australian Historical Studies, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, First World War Studies or The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs.

At the start of the Second World War, Britain was at the height of its imperial power, and it is no surprise that it drew upon the global resources of the Empire once war had been declared. Whilst this international aspect of Britain's war effort has been well-studied in relation to the military contribution of individual dominions and colonies, relatively little has been written about the Empire as a whole. As such, An Imperial World at War makes an important contribution to the historiography relating to the British Empire and its wartime experience. It argues that the war needs to be viewed in imperial terms, that the role of forces drawn from the Empire is poorly understood and that the war's impact on colonial societies is barely grasped at all in conventional accounts. Through a series of case studies, the volume demonstrates the fundamental role played by the Empire in Britain's war effort and highlights some of the consequences for both Britain and its imperial territories.Themes include the recruitment and utilization of military formations drawn from imperial territories, the experience of British forces stationed overseas, the use of strategic bases located in the colonies, British policy in the Middle East and the challenge posed by growing American power, the occupation of enemy colonies and the enemy occupation of British colonies, colonial civil defence measures, financial support for the war effort supplied by the Empire, and the commemoration of the war. The Afterword anticipates a new, decentred history of the war that properly acknowledges the role and importance of people and places throughout the colonial and semi-colonial world.' This volume emanates from a conference organized as part of the 'Home Fronts of the Empire - Commonwealth' project. The project was generously funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and led by Yasmin Khan and Ashley Jackson with Gajendra Singh as Postdoctoral Research Assistant.

At the start of the Second World War, Britain was at the height of its imperial power, and it is no surprise that it drew upon the global resources of the Empire once war had been declared. Whilst this international aspect of Britain's war effort has been well-studied in relation to the military contribution of individual dominions and colonies, relatively little has been written about the Empire as a whole. As such, An Imperial World at War makes an important contribution to the historiography relating to the British Empire and its wartime experience. It argues that the war needs to be viewed in imperial terms, that the role of forces drawn from the Empire is poorly understood and that the war's impact on colonial societies is barely grasped at all in conventional accounts. Through a series of case studies, the volume demonstrates the fundamental role played by the Empire in Britain's war effort and highlights some of the consequences for both Britain and its imperial territories.Themes include the recruitment and utilization of military formations drawn from imperial territories, the experience of British forces stationed overseas, the use of strategic bases located in the colonies, British policy in the Middle East and the challenge posed by growing American power, the occupation of enemy colonies and the enemy occupation of British colonies, colonial civil defence measures, financial support for the war effort supplied by the Empire, and the commemoration of the war. The Afterword anticipates a new, decentred history of the war that properly acknowledges the role and importance of people and places throughout the colonial and semi-colonial world.' This volume emanates from a conference organized as part of the 'Home Fronts of the Empire - Commonwealth' project. The project was generously funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and led by Yasmin Khan and Ashley Jackson with Gajendra Singh as Postdoctoral Research Assistant.

Examines the "home front" war effort from an overall imperial perspective, assessing the contribution of individual imperial territories. There is increasing interest in the "home front" during the Second World War, including issues such as how people coped with rationing, how women worked to contribute to the war effort, and how civilian morale fluctuated over time. Most studies on this subject are confined to Britain, or to a single other colonial territory, neglecting the fact that Britain controlled a large Empire and that there were numerous "home fronts", each of which contributed greatly to the war effort but each in slightly different ways. This book considers "home fronts" from an overall imperial perspective and in a broad array of territories - Australia, India, South Africa, Ceylon, Palestine and Kenya aswell as Britain. It examines many aspects of wartime life - food, communications, bombing, volunteering, internment and more, and discusses important themes including identity, gender, inequality, and the relationship between civilians and the state. Besides case studies outlining the detail of the situation in different territories and in different areas of life, the book assesses "home fronts" across the Empire in a comprehensive way, setting the case studies in their wider context, and placing the subject in, and advancing, the historiography. MARK J. CROWLEY is Associate Professor of History at Wuhan University, China. SANDRA TRUDGEN DAWSON is an Instructor in the Department of History at the University of Maryland. Contributors: NUPUR CHAUDHURI, MARK J. CROWLEY, SANDRA TRUDGEN DAWSON, NADJA DURBACH, ASHLEY JACKSON, RITIKA PRASAD, LINSEY ROBB, SHERENE SEIKALY, JEAN SMITH,ANDREW STEWART, PETER THORSHEIM, CHRISTINE WINTER

The British Empire played a crucial part in the First World War, supplying hundreds of thousands of soldiers and labourers as well as a range of essential resources, from foodstuffs to minerals, mules, and munitions. In turn, many imperial territories were deeply affected by wartime phenomena, such as inflation, food shortages, combat, and the presence of large numbers of foreign troops. This collection offers a comprehensive selection of essays illuminating the extent of the Empire's war contribution and experience, and the richness of scholarly research on the subject. Whether supporting British military operations, aiding the British imperial economy, or experiencing significant wartime effects on the home fronts of the Empire, the war had a profound impact on the colonies and their people. The chapters in this volume were originally published in Australian Historical Studies, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, First World War Studies or The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs.

From the eighteenth century until the 1950s the British Empire was the biggest political entity in the world. The territories forming this empire ranged from tiny islands to vast segments of the world's major continental land masses. The British Empire left its mark on the world in a multitude of ways, many of them permanent. In this Very Short Introduction, Ashley Jackson introduces and defines the British Empire, reviewing its historiography by answering a series of key questions: What was the British Empire, and what were its main constituent parts? What were the phases of imperial expansion and contraction and the general causes of expansion and contraction? How was the Empire ruled? What were its economic effects? What were the cultural implications of empire, in Britain and its colonies? What was life like for people living under imperial rule? What are the legacies of the British Empire and how should we view its place in world history? ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

I am not one for pretty pictures.' Perhaps when I am long gone this will be a quote that I am remembered for alongside my paintings. For you will mostly find me in the gallery on a sunny day and out on the moors when it is at its most inhospitable, for these are the days that captivate me. All your senses are alive, so that what you visibly see is not the whole painting , the rest comes from you. Ashley Jackson's Watercolour sketches is a collection of these raw drawings combined with my intimate thoughts and feelings, together they may become a finished painting. I suppose you could say that I use my sketchbook in the same way that others create a diary of words, they are a reflection of my relationship with the Yorkshire landscape. In all honesty, they were never intended for anything other than my personal recollections. I can go back to the drawing months later and mentally open that moment as if I was stood in that same location, I could tell you the weather, the sounds and smells , whilst the colours are as vivid as if I had gone back in time and revisited the day itself. This book allows you to step back from my dramatic and atmospheric watercolour paintings and see the landscape in its nakedness, through my private, personal sketches you can join me in my artistic journey and conversation with nature.

This is the first full study of an African country during World War II. Unusually, it provides both Africanist and imperialist perspectives. Using extensive archival and oral evidence, Jackson explores the social, economic, political, agricultural, and military histories of Botswana. He
examines Botswana's military contribution to the war effort and the impact of the war on the African home front. The book focuses on events and personalities "on the ground" in Africa, and also considers Botswana's interaction with and impact upon events and personalities in distant imperial
centers, such as Whitehall and the wartime British Army headquarters in the Middle East. The attitudes, aims, and actions of all levels of colonial society--British rulers, African chiefs, military officials, and ordinary African men and women--are likewise studied, thus producing a unique and
"total" history of an African country at war.

Ceylon became a vital Allied and imperial bastion following the fall of Singapore. Forces were rushed to its defence in the dark days of 1942, because if the Japanese had managed to take the island, the sea lanes of the Indian Ocean, vital to imperial and Allied communications, would have been threatened. Furthermore, as traditional sources were lost to the Japanese, Ceylon became the Allies' main source of rubber, an essential material of war. Ceylon at War explains why the British War Cabinet considered the island to be strategically vital as it became a surrogate Singapore following Japan's dramatic conquest of South-east Asia and Burma. It documents the measures taken to defend the island and the flight of thousands of civilians and service personnel to its harbours as they fled in the face of Japanese forces fanning out across South-east Asia and the Dutch East Indies. The April 1942 Japanese raids on Colombo and Trincomalee, described by Churchill as 'the most dangerous moment of the war', are described, as are the concurrent naval manoeuvres off Ceylon's coast as the same Japanese fleet that had devastated Pearl Harbor sought to extinguish the Royal Navy in eastern waters. Ceylon's role as a base for imperial and Allied forces and headquarters of Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten's South East Asia Command is explained, along with the transformations brought to the island by the war. Table of contents: Chapter 1 - The surrogate Singapore; Chapter 2 - 'Refugee harbour': The flight to Ceylon; Chapter 3 - Fortifying the island; Chapter 4 - 'The most dangerous moment': The Japanese raids; Chapter 5 - Life in Ceylon

Buildings of Empire takes the reader on an exciting journey through thirteen territories of the British Empire. From Dublin Castle to the glass and steel of Sir Norman Foster's Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank skyscraper, these buildings capture the essence of the imperial experience, painting an intimate portrait of the biggest empire the world has ever seen: the people who made it and the people who resisted it, as well as the legacy of the imperial project throughout the world. Ashley Jackson visits classic examples of the buildings that the British governed from, the forts they (often brutally) imposed their rule from, the railway stations they travelled from, the banks they traded from, the educational establishments they spread their values from, as well as the grand colonial hotels they stayed in, the sporting clubs and botanical gardens where they took their leisure, and the monumental exhibition spaces in which they celebrated the achievements of settlement and imperial endeavour. The history of these buildings does not end with the empire that built them. Their story in the aftermath of empire highlights the continuing legacy of many of the structures and institutions the British left behind, as well as the sometimes unexpected role that these former symbols of alien rule have played in the establishment of new national identities in the years since independence.

Distant Drums reveals how colonies were central to the defence of the British Empire and the command of the oceans that underpinned it. It blends sweeping overviews of the nature of imperial defence with grass-roots explanations of how individual colonies were mobilized for war, drawing on the author's specialist knowledge of the Indian Ocean and colonies such as Bechuanaland, Ceylon, Mauritius, and Swaziland. This permits the full and dramatic range of action involved in imperial warfare - from policy-makers and military planners in Whitehall to chiefs recruiting soldiers in African villages - to be viewed as part of an interconnected whole. ... After examining the martial reasons for acquiring colonies, Distant Drums considers the colonial role in the First World War. It then turns to the Second World War, documenting the recruitment of colonial soldiers, their manifold roles in British military formations, and the impact of war upon colonial home fronts. It reveals the problems associated with the use of colonial troops far from home, and the networks used to achieve the mobilization of a global empire, such as those formed by colonial governors and regional naval commanders. ... Distant Drums is an important contribution to our understanding of the role of British colonies in twentieth-century warfare. The defence of empire has traditionally been associated with the military endeavours of Britain and the 'white' Dominions, with the Indian Army sometimes in the background. This book champions the crucial role played by the other parts of the British Empire - the sixty or so colonies spread across the globe - in delivering victory during the world wars of the twentieth century.

Winston Churchill attracted far more criticism alive than he has since his death. He was, according to Evelyn Waugh, "always in the wrong, surrounded by crooks, a terrible father, a radio personality".

Whatever one's view of 'the greatest Briton', and despite the best efforts of an army of writers who have penned portraits of him, Winston Churchill remains splendidly unreduced. In this new biography Ashley Jackson describes the contours of Winston Churchill's remarkable life and political career, and gives a sense of the man behind the dark eyes and bulldog features.

From Cabinet outcast to the greatest war leader ever, this is the eternally fascinating story of Winston Churchill's appointment with destiny.

Of Islands, Ports, and Sea Lanes explains the operational and strategic importance of the ports and sea lanes of Africa and the Indian Ocean during the Second World War. In addition, it offers a novel account of the war in the Indian Ocean, a busy and vital theatre of military operations throughout the conflict, though one that is overlooked in most historical studies. An understanding of the significance of the Indian Ocean region, from imperial and strategic perspectives, helps bring unity to the Allied war effort in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, and demonstrates how the highest levels of strategy depended on places, people, and infrastructure in faraway places of seemingly little consequence. The movement of goods and people by sea was central to the prosecution of the imperial and Allied war effort, and this was dependent upon ports and their facilities, together with troopships and merchantmen and the air and naval assets that protected them. The book offers a `how it worked' guide to the Empire's logistical system, and explains the interconnectivity of actions and events on land, sea, and air, detailing the indispensable role played by the ports and sea lanes of the African continent and the Indian Ocean, the British Empire's great connector. Table of contents: Introduction The British Indian Ocean world; Chapter 1 - Ports, islands, and sea lanes in Africa and the Indian Ocean; Chapter 2 - The role of Africa's ports and sea lanes; Chapter 3 - The role of Indian Ocean islands; Chapter 4 - German and Italian raiders and sea lane protection; Chapter 5 - The consequences of Japanese aggression; Chapter 6- Admiral Somerville and the reinforcement of the Indian Ocean; Chapter 7 - Holding the ring; Chapter 8 - The turn towards the offensive; Chapter 9 - Victory Japan

A new history of the long-overlooked WWII theater in Iran and Iraq, its unrecognized significance, and its impact on local society and politics This dynamic history is the first to construct a total picture of the experience and impact of World War II in Iran and Iraq. Contending that these two countries were more important to the Allied forces' war operations than has ever been acknowledged, historian Ashley Jackson investigates the grand strategy of the Allies and their operations in the region and the continuing legacy of Western intervention in the Middle East. Iran and Iraq served as the first WWII theater in which the U.S., the U.K., and the U.S.S.R. fought alongside each other. Jackson charts the intense Allied military activity in Iran and Iraq and reveals how deeply the war impacted common people's lives. He also provides revelations about the true nature of Anglo-American relations in the region, the beginnings of the Cold War, and the continuing corrosive legacy of Western influence in these lands.