For over 2,500 years, the forbidding territory of Afghanistan has served as a vital crossroads for armies and has witnessed history-shaping clashes between civilizations: Greek, Arab, Mongol, and Tartar, and, in more recent times, British, Russian, and American. When U.S. troops entered Afghanistan in the weeks following September 11, 2001, they overthrew the Afghan Taliban regime and sent the terrorists it harbored on the run. But America's initial...
Seems history in Afghanistan tends to repeat itself from time to time. First Alexander the Great tried to subdue the proud Iranian and Scythian warriors in a bloody and inconclusive campaign and had to settle for a compromise solution before getting out of the place to start his conquest of India, after many centuries of bloody wars and conquest by the most fearsome eastern empires including the Persians, the Mongols, the...
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I found this book very easy to read and digest. It covers a lot of history, but does not dwell too long on any one area. I will say that it probably helped a lot that I could produce a mental image of the region and have been to the country before, but even if that wasn't the case it still is a good book to help increase your knowledge of the region.
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This is an excellent work and is a must read for any serious student of Military Studies. Although some would point to his errors of spelling certain place names, this point was covered in the "Preface" to his work as the Author acknowledged the differences in opinion on correct spelling. This book is highly readable history, comprehensive in its coverage and fair-minded in the way it is conveyed. As a side bar, be sure...
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Here's another title essential to understanding the heritage and cultures of the Middle East: a military history of Afghanistan from Alexander the Great to the Taliban. Afghanistan traces the entire history of military conflicts in a country currently the focus of a major American military involvement as part of our "War on Terrorism". From its numerous invasions to the resistance of the Afghani people, this makes for an important,...
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How did Alexander the Great feel when he viewed Afghan warriors following his every move through the open fields and tight crevasses of Afghanistan? Probably much the same as British Major General William Elphinstone felt centuries later as he led an ill-fated expedition out of Afghanistan, during which all of his 15,000-strong caravan of soldiers died at the hands of Afghans...except for the one man left alive to tell the...
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