Customer Reviews

Like Hidden Fire: The Plot to Bring Down the British Empire

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If you are a Hopkirk addict like me, you will breeze through another one of his exciting narratives of Central Asian History and love every minute of it. Fire up the kettle, throw on your fez and curl up in your favourite reading chair as Hopkirk takes you on a true-life tale of derring do against German and Communist Agents in central Asia in World War I.

Russia is the ally and the German is the new encroacher on British Empire and the Imperial Indian Raj. Hopkirk of course picks his cast with a loving hand and we have the usual sort of British imperial heroes, speaking the local language, gaining favour from locals with their fair and firm hand, and doling out the intrigue in dollops.

But... Hopkirk give us detial of the German Spies in this area as well. Some like Niedermeyer, the German Lawrence and his associate Hentig on their overland journey to Kabul to try to convince the Emir to throw in his lot with the Turkish and Germans and attack British India. The details of his adventures in the Persian deserts and his sojourn in Kabul make great, fast reading. The heebie-jeebies that his action caused the British and their reaction to it are also adventure writ large.

Hopkirk describes the German/ Turkish attempt to bring down the British Empire with a holy war orchestrated by themselves. It also shows what brittle fibre holy war is made from. In the end the respective ethnic groups in the muslim world acted in their own self interests -- the Persians had no love for a Turkish Empire, the Emir of Afghanistan kept checking which way the wind blew before deciding to remain loyal to Britain. And the Arabs decided that an Englishman (TE Lawrence) held the Key to independence, not their fellow muslims in Constantinople.

Once the mess of the Arab Revolt gutted Turkish Power the British find themselves out of the frying pan and into the fire and intervene in the Caucasus' to try to keep Russia in the war.

The British effort here and the emmiment Victorian personalities are well described and the perfidious Red Reaction and myth-making also exploded by Hopkirk.

In final analysis Hopkirk writes books alive with adventure. I think that Hopkirk had a major problem in delimiting the book. That is a hard thing to do in a work of this kind. Some things such as the British under seige at Al Kut and its eventual fall are directly related to the tales of our heroes on the ground the political outcome later described. Some other details might have made a shorter book (ie, the Zimmerman Telegram recounting) but they are still interesting and indirectly related to the tale Hopkirk is telling.

If you have the ability to honestly judge it then there are a few flaws that should be noted, but they do not at all detract from the flow of the read or the historical smorgasbord laid out before you.

In final analysis this book encorporates the widest canvas that Hopkirk has used to date, the World War. That necessitates more detail on distant, but related elements. These may not be as well organised as they could be, but, because Hopkirk writes them, are always highly interesting.

A good tea-time book. Something that one looks forward to....

When it comes to history, many of the most engrossing books are what the French call "haute vulgarisation"-popularizing studies with an emphasis on a tale well-told. Like Hidden Fire is this; but it is more too, rescuing from obscurity a forgotten yet critical series of events during World War I.

Hopkirk recounts how the Germans and Ottomans worked together from 1914 on to dislodge the British and Russians from the Caucasus, Iran, and Central Asia. For the Germans, this was the route to India; for the Turks, it offered a Pan-Turkic realm. Even readers versed in twentieth-century history will probably shake their head in amazement at their own ignorance of the German role in this jihad, a story full of drama and memorable figures. Highlights include the career of Wilhelm Wassmuss, "the German Lawrence," singlehandedly causing havoc for the British in southern Iran; the Niedermeyer-Hentig expedition to Afghanistan which came close to lighting the fuse of revolution in India; the near-success of Prince Henry of Reuss, Germany's minister to the shah's court, in bringing Iran into the war on the Entente side; and how the loss of a German codebook in the Persian desert contributed to the United States entry into the war. In addition, Hopkirk also tells the remarkable tale of British diplomats, spies, and soldiers in the anti-Soviet rebellion in Baku.

The Great War so profoundly changed the Middle East that its consequences continue to be felt; therefore, the events described in Like Hidden Fire need urgently to be incorporated into the standard history.

Middle East Quarterly, March 1995

Hopkirk is one of those rare historians who can enlighten and tell a rousing tale at the same time. Anyone who has read any of his previous books is well aware of that. Here though he seems to falter. A good part of his story can be found in his other books. The premise of a grand plan to bring down the British Empire in India and destroy its influence in Central Asia does not really pan out here. Diverse incidents are tossed together but Hopkirk never really convinces the reader that together they form a grand plan. Not bad but I expected alot better.

So many aspects of our present world and the dilemmas that plague us now grew out of the backrooms, the backwoods and the backwaters of the world. Even today, Central Asia is a mystery to most people in the US. "Like Hidden Fire" is a great place to start to learn how complex the world is and why the peoples of the Middle East and Central Asia might have just a little mistrust of the West and its motives.

The story is the down and dirty of the German efforts to unseat the British Empire leading up to and during the First World War. It includes efforts to create a Holy War against the British and champion the Kaiser as a "Defender of the Faith" (the Faith in question being Islam, of course).

The trail takes us from intrigue to counter intrigue through Turkey, Iran and into Central Asia where then, as today, the Westerners are more pawns in the local struggles than vice versa.

This is totally relevent to today both in understanding the local issues as well as how shallow the West is in dealing with the people and culture of the Middle East and Central Asia.

The work is as vast and complex as the region and the people it covers. Set some time aside to read it and don't be surprised if you find yourself exploring the people, places and other works that are cited in the book.

-Mike

Peter Hopkirk knows how to tell an interesting tale, and the history of imperialism is full of them. As a result, this book contains many intriguing stories of derring-do.

However, unlike "The Great Game" which had a solid overriding theme, this book feels more haphazard because the efforts of the Germans to set the East afire were rather haphazard. This was perhaps a reflection of wishful thinking on their part combined with a belief that solid Prussian organizational ethic could make anything happen.

Certainly, the attempt to foment a "Holy War" in the Middle East was worth the limited effort the German's put into it. And that limited effort generates some interesting stories. But, the book could have ended with the fall of Baghdad as that effectively eliminated the Germans from the equation.

Instead, Hopkirk grafts on the story of the events around Baku which actually provided the best opportunity to foment Muslim unrest, but which occured after the Germans had left the area. This is an entertaining story as well, but seems only vaguely connected to the idea of the book.

In sum, an entertaining if rambling history of a little-known corner of the Great War.

"Like Hidden Fire" is another of Hopkirk's wonderful books about central Asia. He begins in the 19th century with some political backstory, but this is essentially a book about a subplot of the First World War. Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany wanted to find a way to destabilize the British holdings in south and central Asia, and had lost no opportunity over the previous twenty years to win the friendship of Islamic nations, particularly Turkey,the core of the tattered Ottoman Empire. When war broke out, the Germans set plans in motion to incite revolts in India and Afghanistan, and to take over control of Persia, nominally neutral but in fact a battleground for the great powers.

Over the four years of the war, the consequences of this German plan played out in individual dramas of espionage, diplomacy and military action. Hopkirk covers both sides of the story, and does a better job than in his "The Great Game" of keeping a fairly even-handed tone. Some of the German exploits were astonishing -- particularly those of Captain Niedermayer, who by a horrifying series of forced marches penetrated the Persia-Afghanistan border with a diplomatic mission to the Emir of Afghanistan. The British heroes are covered too: Ranald McDonell, Edward Noel, and most interestingly, Reginald Teague-Jones, who disappeared at the end of the war in mysterious circumstances. Hopkirk did a good deal of work and ultimately did manage to trace Teague-Jones. I won't spoil the surprise by telling you what he found, but there are clearly still mysteries waiting to be revealed when the UK goverment opens up the 100 year old files in a few more years time.

Political events of the time had an impact on the story too, most notably the Bolshevik revolution, which changed the course of Russian involvement and hence the balance of power in south Asia. One event is covered in detail -- the massacre of the commissars in Baku in 1919. Once an icon of Soviet political mythology, the vast memorial built there was torn down in 1990 after the collapse of the USSR.

If you are new to Hopkirk, I'd recommend reading "The Great Game" first, because as well as being immensely entertaining it will give you a broad and thorough grounding in the political background to imperial politics in Asia. But after that, this is a great follow-up.

Hopkirk does a wonderful job in this work of illuminating some of the less well known chapters of the first world war. As usual, his writing is very good and he does a pretty good job of holding the reader's interest. However, it is on this last point that this work is a half step below Hopkirk's other works on Central Asia.

The nature of this book is such that the history of a world war must be told to put into context the events that Hopkirk describes. As a result, Hopkirk is not able to do what works so very well for him in his other writings. In the others, he is able to focus on one or two charecters at a time and tell their story in a very engaging way. Here, he must combine characters and events and a bit of the good story telling power of Hopkirk's other works are lost.

But, by all means, do pick up the book and read it.

For those of you who are familiar with Hopkirk's other books, this book is yet another well written narrative on an obscure subject.
Hopkirk does a wonderful job of bringing to life key personnel who were involved in Great Game intrigue in the Middle East during WWI. Figures such as Von Hentig, Niedermeyer, Wassmuss, Teague-Jones, Noel, and MacDonnel to name a few, are brought to life and given their rightful spot in the plot-counterplot dramas that unfolded behind the scenes in Mesopotomia, Persia, Afghanistan and Russian/Soviet Central Asia.
I would have liked to see a bit more development on Wassmuss vis-a-vis Mesopotamia, and I think any reader of this would love to see in the future the true life story of Reginald Teague-Jones.
However, the scope of this book is so large, that any further elaboration on any of these subjects would have made the book a multi-volume set.
A great read for anyone who is interested in any of the other theaters of WWI. Excellent bibliography (as usual for Hopkirk)...highly recommended.

Hopkirk strays from the central theme into international soap operas and side stories. And though he reintroduces familiar facts about Kaiser Wilhelm II, fans of history and fiction alike will enjoy the drama and character motives behind the many subplots.

You can count on Peter Hopkirk to deliver fascinating accounts of the lands that served as the arena for The Great Game, and this is no exception. In this well-done volume, Hopkirk tells the tales of intrigue launched at the outset of WWI, mostly aimed at the destruction of the British Empire. While the world was focused on the carnage in Europe, a lesser-known war was raging in Central Asia, where the players were the dying Ottoman Empire, the newly emergent Bolsheviks plus Persian and Caucasian forces and, of course, the British. Hopkirk records these events with a journalists eye toward telling a compelling story. So much of today's world was influenced by the events Hopkirk describes. This is a valuable book which rounds out our knowledge of a most turbulent time.