Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia

My latest read takes me back to familiar territory. For whatever reason, I seem to have an unhealthy fascination with South and Central Asia. This book is a brief history of the most important events in South Asia starting about 1800 and going to about 1940, from the 3 British Wars in Afghanistan to the British colonization of India and intrigue in Nepal and Tibet.

I must say that I found the first half or so of the book to be most interesting. This is undoubtedly due to our current engagement in Afghanistan and history's guide to how to fight there. The lesson is basically: don't. In fact, it is remarkable how similar previous Afghan wars sound like our current engagement: military rolls through, destroying authority, sets up camp and has to deal with guerillas picking them off in an irregular war. Of course, our current situation does not exactly fit this mold, but it is pretty close.

I didn't find the colonial history of India as interesting. This could be that I am not as interested as I am in Afghanistan, but could also be how it was presented in this book. From what I understand, Peter Hopkirk's, "The Great Game," is better, but I found most of what I was looking for in this book.

I also found the genesis of the issues in Tibet to be quite interesting. It is quite interesting the historical fascination with a small nation within a nation.

My next book takes me back to Afghanistan, in a history professor's walk from Herat to Kabul. I should be reporting back shortly on that.