Customer Reviews

Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the War against the Taliban

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This book was very well researched and written. Even if you have very little knowledge of Afghanistan, you can understand and easily read this book. It is full of interesting history, along with it's excellent explanation of the military information that is the center if it's purpose.

Not being a military history buff, I was pleased to see that some of this country's history, it's native peoples, and some their customs were also covered.

It is good reading.

You must be interested in Afghanistan and it's history to read this book, and if you are this book is a winner for you.

The only drawback is that you can get lost in all of the names, battles and locations happening at once, especially during the Alexander period. If you have the patience to reread some passages over again, you'll be fine.

Lots of good information.

This book is an excellent introduction to the "big" history of modern-day Afghanistan, providing an overview of empire building and collapsing (either Afghans pushing outward or others pushing inwards), succeeding waves of tribes and armies moving through the region, etc. For anyone interested in having an understanding of Afghanistan with some historical depth to it, this book is one I would, consequently, recommend.

Where the author falls flat, in my opinion, is when he begins to pontificate on how the United States should have pursued its intervention in that nation. In this instance he betrays a minimal level of understanding ("where were the light parts of the 1st Infantry Division?" being a question he asks, apparently unaware that the current answer is that such don't exist, for instance).

The book does redeem itself a bit in looking at the future of Afghanistan, with the author proposing a rather novel notion of modelling the Afghan government on that of Switzerland. The author makes a decent case for the idea, even if it might sound a bit odd.

I wanted to study up on the region while I was assigned there, and I read many books from Amazon.com. Many had bits and pieces of the history, but this book had a grand view from early times of Alexander the Great, the Muslim invasions, the Mongol conquest to later times during the Soviet invasion and the later rise of the Taliban. This book is essential and provides a basic understanding of many of the key players, which I was largely unable to find elsewhere. If I were given one choice of a book to read to understand Afghanistan for a Westerner before visiting there, this book would be it, especially for the price. Other books may provide some more detailed analysis of a smaller scale (Great Game, British Wars, Soviet War, etc.) but a whole history is most informative.

This is an excellent book if you are just looking into the mindset of the region, and a basic history of Afghanistan. However, as another reviewer states, it does begin to fall flat on the more modern history. Again, Stephen Tanner acts as though the Taliban are gone forever toward the end of the book. He also makes a lot of assumptions, guesses, and does show that he lacks an understanding of our military and their strategies. For example, the suggestion that we were using Afghans as "cannon fodder" because we didn't give them combat boots, body armor, helmets and M-4s or M-16s. For a better understanding of why the Afghans wouldn't have accepted (or used) any of those things, I suggest reading Marcus Luttrell's Lone Survivor: The Eyewitness Account of Operation Redwing and the Lost Heroes of SEAL Team 10. The short answers on both of those are "stealth" and "reliability". (The author actually refers to the AK-47 as RICKETY. Yikes.)

Becuase of this, for me, it does throw into doubt the rest of the book. If he could get so many basics wrong (again, the AK-47 - rickety? Really?) did he get any of the ancient history stuff right? Well, he doesn't cite any sources, so if you're looking for historical accuracy, you should pass on this. But I recommend this book if you want a somewhat slanted, entertaining, breadth-first basic approach to the military history of Afghanistan. It is rather easy to read.

If you want to really know what's going on in Afghanistan though, right now, there are better books out there. I highly recommend Luttrell's book above for a on-the-ground look at the Operation Enduring Freedom.

Overall I give this entertaining look at Afghanistan 3 rickety AK-47s out of 5.

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 to have a very good geographical map or maps of the area of Central Asia before you begin.

A must read

Dr. Terry Tucker

Combined Security Transition Command-Afganistan

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 Mughals, the Turks and the Sihks then came the British Empire who lost an army and later after a bloody war had to settle for less than victory in a compromise solution before abandoning the land, then came the Soviets with overwhelming force fighting hard without regards for human rights and depopulating the country to deny a base of operations to the Mujahadeen warriors, they also had to leave without obtaining a complete victory and now the American and Nato armies are inbroiled in the same kind of hit and run warfare and without obtaining a conclusive victory. Seems the great powers are always able to take the country, the major cities and the valleys but they can never subdue the mountain tribes. The Pashtuns are the hardiest of these tribes and are located not only in Afghanistan but also in Pakistan, these fierce warriors have embrased the Taliban cause and seems they will endure and when the last NATO soldier leaves they will rise again to take the country, they have time on their side, while the Western powers are always pressed for a fast and easy victory and are quick to retire when negative public opinion starts to hurt the present regimes the Pashtuns will endure.

After reading this very interesting history I don't see a clear victory for the west in Afghanistan, there will not be a winning of hearts and minds, for the West to obtain a victory there will be very unlikely as the US and NATO will have to resort to practices that are abhorrent in their societies such as genocide (as the Soviets did) and erradication of Pashtun tribal ways and customs that goes against the inclusion and diversity practices defended by the West. The situaction is almost a catch 22 you need to rebuilt the country in order to provide jobs and order but in order to do that you first have to erradicate violence which entails a victory against the Taliban. Is depressing to see that Western good intentions will come to nothing and someday a new generation of even more intollerant and violent breed of Pashtun Talibans will again hold Afghanistan in its clutches. Some lands were born to suffer.

One of the first four books any new student to Afghanistan should read along with Dupree's Afghanistan, Schofield's Afghan Frontier, and Rubin's Fragmentation of Afghanistan.

While reading the first third or so of this military history of Afghanistan, I thought it was a four star book. The book tells the story of Afghanistan from Alexander to the Mongols very effectively. The middle third covering the successors of the Mongols through the Great Game era was interesting, though too dry and condensed given the fascinating material there was to work with. I guess that is a hazard of an overview covering such a lengthy period of time. The final third, covering modern Afghanistan feels tossed off and written with a tone out of touch with the remainder of the book.

I like the epic scope of this book, but it consistently focused more on the foreigners invading Afghanistan, than on the Afghans themselves. The entertaining chapter about Alexander's invasion seems to focus more on Alexander the Great than on Afghanistan itself, for instance. The chapters on the U.S. occupation seem to be more about the U.S. as well. Of course, 9-11 and the "war on terror" have to be discussed to understand subsequent U.S. actions. But those chapters spend too much time covering these matters from a purely U.S. point of view, even covering random domestic events -- those chapters actually read like a US history book, not one about Afghanistan. I guess this makes sense because the author's theme is less about the fighting tactics of the people living in the Afghanistan area, and more about how Afghanistan is "Easy to Invade, Hard to Hold." He does a good job of illustrating this theme, but it is a theme that necessarily focuses on a foreigner's viewpoint. Both are needed for a complete picture. T.R. Fehrenbach's histories of Texas, Mexico and the Commanches are good examples of histories that show the clash of different peoples and cultures and how it impacts the nature of warfare.

A few points:

1. It is not really a military history. Its a political-military history. Politics are discussed more than tactics or weapons. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the title is a bit misleading.

2. The military aspects of the book often consists of describing various battles or tactical engagements, without providing quality context. There's really a lot of meaningless recitals of engagements without any flavor or describing why they matter.

3. There's about five low-quality maps in this book. Given the nature of the material, there should be at least twenty or more. The above-referenced engagements are often discussed without giving the reader any ability to figure where the fight actually happened. Geography is key to understanding this country, and the book fails in that regard.

4. The beginning of the Soviet invasion is reasonably well described, but the cause of their actual defeat or the fact that they were actually defeated is only superficially covered. It almost reads like the Soviets won as result. This is because the author repeatedly describes individual engagements (which the Soviets usually won), but fails to effectively cover the big picture. What he writes about the Afghan resistance is fascinating, but I wish he tied the whole story together better.

5. The chapters about America's involvement could have been written by anyone with a subscription to the NY Times. America's occupation reads like a series of news briefs, not an actual story. Also, the author injects some very debatable opinions, that - even if correct- derail the objective tone of the book. In these chapters he often states his personal opinion as though it is fact, but these "hot opinions" are thrown out there with an odd tone. Maybe that's justified, but it is out of step with the remainder of the book. Though there is a lot of interesting material in these chapters, they feel thrown together and biased.

In short, I started out loving this book, but, by the end, I wanted to throw it out the window due to the sloppy final chapters. Despite these flaws, the book still gave me a good overview, and I learned a lot. While even in the first two-thirds the author often gets stuck in the weeds of context-free battles, I still got a good sense of the rise and fall of various empires in the Afghan area. Hence the three stars. But the book could have been great - a missed opportunity. If anyone knows of another, better, book that focuses on the rise and fall of empires in the general south central Asia area, please let me know.

While this book does not equal the breadth and fluidity achieved by Ahmed Rashid in "Descent Into Chaos," it nevertheless manages to fully convey the difficulties army commanders from Alexander the Great to Gen. McChrystal have faced and will apparently continue to face in the country of Afghanistan.

A sobering tale of seemingly eternal tribal difficulties and the issue faced with maintaining the peace after a seemingly easy invasion.

Definitely a must read for anyone interested in Afghanistan and the ongoing War on Terror.

Stephen Tanner's book "Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the Fall of the Taliban," is a brilliant and exciting piece of work that will serve Western readers well.

Tanner's work covers the regional peoples and ancient tribes who have made indelible contributions to modern Afghan society to the first years of U.S. intervention in the "War on Terror."

The early chapters of the book are an interesting brief on Afghan history condensed. Featuring an exhaustive list of regions, tribes, villains and personalities that would otherwise require too much additional background to cover in-depth, Tanner fittingly navigates early history to focus on primary events in Afghan history and the overall Afghan experience, if there ever was such a thing.

Tanner's modern-day material draws on British, or at least mostly Occidental sources, and covers the British and Russian experience in Afghanistan noticeably more in-depth. The connections Tanner makes between Afghanistan and Switzerland are brilliant and set the stage for his conclusion.

Given the subsequent events since the book's publication, it would not be difficult to fill in any holes with supplemental material from various sources, if not Tanner's newer material, regarding the American-Afghan experience since. Obviously the accuracy of Tanner's analysis will remain to be seen within the context and perhaps only at the conclusion of the "War on Terror."

Afghanistan itself, exists as a profound storehouse and contributor to world culture. The future of the world's destiny is no less shaped by this region once bisecting East and West; now bisecting past and present, than it has been throughout time.

Overall, "Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the Fall of the Taliban" is an exceptional look at a subject too many Americans can claim ignorance, if only by virtue of geography.

Perhaps best of all, it is written with hope, rather than writing off the long suffering Afghan people, be it through Imperialism, radical Islam or perhaps most unfortunately, benign neglect.

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