Customer Reviews

Into the Land of Bones: Alexander the Great in Afghanistan (Hellenistic Culture and Society)

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I think this book's greatest strength (and weakness) is its constant comparison of Alexander's invasion of Afghanistan and later occupations by the British, the Russians, and the Americans. For today's audience, there are many references to culturally well-known people and events such as when he compares Roxanne, Alexander's Bactrian bride, with Sharbat Gula, an Afghani girl made famous on the cover of National Geographic in one of that magazine's most famous photos and later revisited by the magazine.

The weakness of this lies in the fact that many of the current references will quickly become dated, and future readers won't identify with his comparisons nearly as well.

It was a well-written, fast-paced look at one small part of Alexander's conquests. I'm glad I read it and would recommend it to others. My one hesitation is that he follows a book written in detail on not only the events, but the motives and feelings of the individuals, with an appendix on his sources which states that there is so little factual data remaining about Alexander's reign -- and most of that contradictory -- that it raises the question of how reliable his conclusions are. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the book, and will undoubtedly reread it.

I actually had the pleasure of listening to him talk about this book in one of my classes. He is a great person and an even better historian. This is an unique book that studies Alexander the Great's campaign in the area of present-day Afghanistan and compares it to what Britian and the US later did in that area. Holt explains the various battles and campaigns in that area and how it affected Alexander, his troops, and the world. This is a great book and highly recommend it!

I do not agree with one of the reviewers who believed that it was ridiculous to compare George W. Bush campaign in Iraq/Afghanistan to Alexander the Great's campaigns. It is completely legitimate and that is what history is for! We analyze history that way we can learn from it. From this book it is obvious we as a world have not learned the lessons that Alexander the Great learned and showed us in his campaigns. This is a great book with great, useful comparisons. I do not believe Mr. Holt was overreaching in his analysis.

This book is an interesting historical account of Alexander's campaign through Bactria (modern Afghanistan). As an added bonus, the author compares the difficulties and challenges in waging an Afghan war experienced by Alexander to those experienced in modern history by Great Britain, the USSR, and America.

Into the Land of Bones provides a much-needed insight on the continuity and change of Afghanistan's culture and history. One can only hope that US military strategists have fully familiarized themselves with the historical patterns in regional warfare described here by Holt.

Professor Holt has written a superb book about Alexander the Great's sojourn in what we now call Afghanistan. It is unlikely that he would have written this incisive and careful gem if we had not been attacked by fanatical murderers who were based there. We were attacked, brilliantly and successfully, and we have yet to bring to justice those who plotted this attack. In short, we are still not winning this war we have declared. But Professor Holt is not writing about this directly. What he has done is describe Alexander's attempts to pacify the region in preparation for his assault on what we now know as Pakistan and India.

Alexander was the model of all conquerors after him, not only because he was remarkably successful but because he was audacious and brilliant, as well as remarkably brave and vicious, even by contemporary standards. As Holt shows, Alexander never did pacify the tribes of this region, in part because the geography of mountain valleys, desert and vast open grasslands were a nursery for tribalism. Holt leaves it to the reader to draw conclusions about our sojourn in Afghanistan. He does not compare our policy with Alexander's. How could he since we do not have a real policy. Half of Pakistan could as easily be in Afghanistan, Pashtuns living on both sides of the border.
What Holt does show us with economy and brilliance, that despite the passage of two millenia, dramatic changes in religion and technology, there remains a profound commitment to feud, tribal loyalty, warrior culture and the oppression of women that no democratic country such as we claim to be can bring to heel without destroying our values and self-respect.

A really excellent book. It is a refreshingly short, but very
inclusive insight into the divisive nature of Afghanistan's
culture and society which has, despite the many failed.
conquests of its people from Alexander's times to ours, remained
largely unchanged. It is presented in very easily understood
language for the average reader, though I think it would provide
a valuable digest of its subject for the more academic reader.
I have found it very enlightening in that it has deepened my
belief of why our own military involvement, because of its failure
to consider the lessons of Afghanistan's historical resistence to
change, is doomed---at least for now.

For those who enjoy popular history, "Into the Land of Bones" presents a good fast-paced read. Certainly, the author's thesis that the military protagonists of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries--the British, the Russians, and the United States--have not learned the lessons of history that Afghanistan [Alexander's Bactria and the Hindu Khush] ought to have taught them is undeniable. And Alexander's exploits are always compelling, especially the accounts of his deteriorating relations with his army in the unforgiving land that is today's Afghanistan.

Unfortunately, however, this is Alexander-Lite. Other than his primary thesis on the Afghan quagmire, if one might use the term, the author does not delve deeply into the issues. Relying on tendentious evidence, he presumes to enter the mind, for instance, of Roxane, who "may have wished to remain anonymous married quietly to a local villager" [91]. Mercifully, he does not probe the psyche of Thalestris, Queen of the Amazons, who wanted to have Alexander's baby! It is difficult to take such speculations seriously.

On a more serious note, the author omits any discussion of the major problem confronting scholars when evaluating the evidence for Alexander the Great: that the primary sources, which he does cite, are actually secondary sources, who are relying on lost eye-witness accounts, many of which had their own agendas. The author's splendid title, which immediately grabs the reader's attention, presents an example. In his recurring discussion of the "devouring dogs" that gnaw the bones of the dead and the dying at Zariaspa (Bactra), he cites the 1st-century geographer, Strabo (11.11.3), and two secondary sources. He neglects to inform us, however, that Strabo cites Onesicritus of Astypalaia as the source of this gruesome tale. Although Onesicritus constitutes an eye-witness of sorts, he is ridiculed by the ancient sources, including Arrian, as being both fanciful and mendacious. Alexander himself, according to Plutarch, threw Onesicritus' tales into the Indus River and told their author that he ought to jump in after them for writing such trash. And that is my biggest criticism of this book; that the author is extremely selective in his citations. So although I would not recommend the book as a reading for a serious course on Alexander the Great, I would recommend it as an entertaining book for the general public who doesn't care a whit about the picky-picky nature of scholarship.

After all, no matter what any of us think, Alexander will remain Great. Otherwise we wouldn't keep reading about him.

An excellent addition to the literature on counterinsurgency and on Alexander the Great. Dr. Holt uses his extensive knowledge of Alexander to tell a cautionary tale about the long history of Afghanistan as a land of insurgency. He does this by telling the story of the insurgency there against Alexander which will be repeated several times in later periods with particular emphasis on the two nineteenth century British experiences, and the 20th century Russian experience, with an eye towards lessons for the 21st century American involvement. It is quite successful in presenting a cautionary tale about counterinsurgency in Afghanistan. He also does an excellent job of contrasting the first half of Alexander's military campaign outside of Greece which had a very conventional, albeit supremely successful, beginning with a sharp turn to unconventional after the death of Darius forced Alexander to enter Afghanistan to battle a warlord who also claimed the throne lost by Darius.

The book succeeds both as a cautionary tale and as a straightforward account of the much lesser known foray into Bactria (modern day Afghanistan.)

This is the first book that I have read written by Mr. Holt,and I must say it is extremely informative.
By reading this book you will understand why Afghanistan was never conquered and I think it will never be.
So many have tried from Alexander the Great, the British and the Soviets.All lost including Alexander.He took a very smooth way out from this country with harsh terrain and warlods who are only faithful to their own shadows.
Into the land of bones will explain why so many have died and yet never conquered Bactria.
The distruction of all the cultural and archeological assetts that Afghanistan has,destroyed by wars, warlords and their infinite distructions of archeological sights.Millions of coins from all periods of that rich and historic area are in the markets sold through bazaars in Pakistan and India. What a disgrace.
Did you know that there has been a fantastic discovery maybe the only one ever. In Afghanistan the archeologists discovered a ball used in catapults, which they are almost sure that is the only item ever found from Alexander's war paraphernelia.
I strongly suggest you read this book to understand what the American soldiers are going against.Terrains,warlords,harsh weather,they are real heroes.
Devourer of humans are what the Bactrians used to do.Put the dead bodies out on the ground and let wild dogs devour them.Recycling?
That gives you an idea of what Afghanistan is all about.

I love history but I hate reading all the dry material. I want to learn and be entertained at the same time. I also don't like the material to be so above my head that I have no idea what is going on the book. This book is great if you are like me and have trouble focusing reading, it manages to keep your attention. It also goes into great detail and makes you feel like you could possibly know Alexander and Afghan people.

Learn what Alexander, the British and the Russians all knew about a land of mountains and desert where nothing but poppy will grow; where the cities are near the borders and out of touch with the rest of the land; where people speak a bewildering array of totally obscure languages; where children are bred from the womb to the tomb for mountain warfare and nothing else; where internecine fighting and tribalism are endemic; where an everyday culture that is innured to every form of horror scared the bejesus out of Alexander's most hardened veterans when they saw dogs in the streets finishing off the innards of sentenced criminals while children played nearby and people went about their business without batting an eye. Let history cure our cultural amnesia about "the land of the bones."