Overall Hostory of Afghanistan | Afghanistan: A Military History From Alexander The Great To The Fall Of...

Very readable and informative | Afghanistan: A Military History From Alexander The Great To The Fall Of The Taliban | Stephen Tanner

books:


	• Afghanistan: A Military History From Alexander The Great To The Fall Of The Taliban Stephen Tanner Da Capo Press, 2003 - 368 pages average customer review:based on 11 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Afghanistan: A military history from Alexander the Great to the Fall of the Taliban

Excellent book that informs the reader about the country and its military events. US Army issues this book to some Soldiers deploying to Afghanistan.

Overall Hostory of Afghanistan

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.

for more information click here

Very readable and informative

I highly recommend this book to the general reader--it's written in very readable and enjoyable prose, and covers a lot of territory without bogging down in too much detail. For me, the most enjoyable parts were reading the early chapter on Alexander the Great's foray into what is now called Afghanistan, as well as the British disasters in the 19th century. The book's only weak point is at the very end--it was published in 2002 and doesn't--in my view--cover in sufficient detail the events of post-9/11 Afghanistan while bringing in extraneous information about events in "the war on terror" elsewhere around the globe.

for more information click here

Helpful for breadth, not for depth

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.

for more information click here

Concise and general in its scope, with concentrated focus on the most pivotal events, well founded and provoking analysis

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.
REVIEW EVERY BOOK YOU READ, READER OPINIONS ARE WELL SERVED BY THE PHENOMENON OF THE INTERNET!

for more information click here

Following the events of September 11, 2001, the world was riveted as American military power contested the legendary warrior culture of Afghanistan. By spring 2002, America began to draw down its forces, its mission accomplished: The Afghan Taliban regime has been overthrown and the terrorists it harbored were on the run. Was America's easy victory proof of its military superiority, or were the Afghans merely eyeing the newcomers as they have watched foreign armies in centuries past, knowing time is on their side?For over 2,500 years, the forbidding territory of Afghanistan has served as a vital crossroads--not just for armies but for clashes between civilizations--the Greeks, Arabs, Mongols, and Tartars, and in more recent times, Britain and Russia. Now America must face a new enemy on this land--a land that for centuries has become a graveyard of empires past.This first-ever complete military history of Afghanistan illuminates the broad historical context into which American forces have been drawn--a cautionary tale, perhaps, about the dangers that may lie ahead.

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

hot