Customer Reviews

The North-West Frontier: British India and Afghanistan, a Pictorial History 1839-1947

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Michael Barthorp's book on one of the most turbulent areas of the British Empire has been reissued in a very welcome and well produced volume.

There is ample detail on the Pathans, or Pushtuns as they are more normally now called, the actual inhabitants of this rugged area. The main tribal groupings and their principal tendencies are neatly summarised together with a clear mapping of the area. Illustrations, all contemporary, indicate the look of the areas in which actions were fought: by no means were all arid scrub! The political dimensions of the struggles book are deftly assessed with each of the major wars receiving a clear narrative account. It would have been appreciated for there to have been maps of individual actions, though the list of engagements suggests the inhibiting cost of such a provision.

The book may therefore be recommended as an excellent survey of the issues and actions of the period and place, covering the whole of the British Empire's connection with the Frontier. It is a reasanable and certainly accurate synopsis of the political ramifications whose complexity are daunting.