Martin Ewans (1928–2010)

This short and quick read easily lives up to its title. This would be a good introductory book to anyone who wants an overview of the history and culture that is very much alive in Afghanistan today. The citizens of Afghanistan have a very keen sense of their history and will talk about conflicts between tribes that happened decades or centuries ago as if they were yesterday. May of the conspiracy theories that this book says Afghans hold to the influence of Britian, the US or Russia on their lives have been echoed by the interpreters that I had here in country.

The book is good for anyone who wants an overview of Afghanistan’s history in the last two centuries. While the book touches on Alexander and Genghis Khan, it does not give them nearly the treatment of some other books. Likewise, its treatment of the events of the Great Game between Russian and Britian are complete, but it rarely goes into detail on any particular event. This makes the book good for providing an overall framework for anyone looking to get deeper into the history and po… (mere)