Afghanistan : A Short History of Its People and Politics

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Summary: Afghanistan: Tragedy Heaped Upon Tragedy
Review: Afghanistan's history is almost entirely one of war, hostility and revenge. Martin Ewans' short work, although providing only a high level view, covers these bloody events that traverse the centuries.

Unfortunately, Ewans' work is often not easy reading. His prose is dry and wordy. It requires a patient mind to persevere. However, attention to detail can be rewarding as Ewans slowly unravels the internecine politics of Afghanistan.

To understand the modern history of Afghanistan, one needs to understand the broad sweep of history. Afghanistan has, in recent times, been the home of modern terrorism. This terrorism has found root in a soil of prejudice and injustice. Indeed, Afghanistan must surely be teetering on the edge of being a failed state. Perhaps it is already at this point?

Afghanistan is a tragedy. Yet it is has always been so. Ewans meticulously outlines how this tragedy has unfolded. It is a further tragedy that the West has turned a blind eye to this benighted country. Its people deserve better.


Rating:
Summary: Excellent primer on a fascinating country
Review: Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics, by Martin Ewans, is a fantastic book. This fascinating account of this plucky country was chock full of facts that have immediate relevance. Covering from ancient times to 2002, this book provides a traditional history--no stories of the working classes or women. But it covers the byzantine regime changes of Afghanistan very well. It als does a fine job of explaining how the Afghanistan state was in constant tension between the local tribal powers and the more modern central authority of the king. The foreign situation was also an exercise in balance, with the Afghans depending on money, guns and expertise from British India to fend off the Russian Empire. However, the relationship with the Brits wasn't entirely godlen, as the three Anglo-Afghan wars suggest.

While the history was intensely interesting, the last chapters of the book, which cover the politics and battles of the last two decades which have left Afghanistan such a mess, were the most relevant for me. If you want to know how mcuh the CIA spent supporting the Taliban, it's in there. If you want to know which external nations supported which of the warring factions, it's in there. If you want to know why Afghanistan grows the majority of the world's opium, it's in there.

I won't say this book was easy to get through. The writing is quite dense. The frequent re-appearance of characters was at times confusing, but I fear that is more a feature of Afghan history. For a concise political history of a nation that we're becoming more and more involved with, check out this book.

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Summary: Good until the end...
Review: Ewans, Martin, Afghanistan: A Short Story of Its People and Politics, (New York: HarperCollins, 2002). Pp. ix, 244. 37 Ill. 8 Maps. Epilogue. Annotated Bibliography. Index. ISBN: 0-06-050507-9.
Afghanistan: A Short Story of Its People and Politics is a complete and concise synopsis of Afghanistan's leaders and foreign occupation. It gives a quick chronology of its many leaders, including Alexander the Great and ending with the Taliban. Furthermore, it describes the interplay between politics, especially in regards to Kabul, and the people of Afghanistan, relaying the constant power struggle either within Afghanistan or against foreign powers.
Martin Ewans is a credible source in terms of an accurate historical record. He served as a U.S. diplomat to both Afghanistan and Pakistan, and relies upon a wide variety of references for his information. In this respect, the book is extremely useful for the average reader looking for a quick overview of Afghani history. Moreover, the focus upon leadership and occupation sheds much light upon the present day struggle for autonomy and the extreme antagonism/skepticism of Afghani leaders towards foreign powers.
However, in the last two chapters of the book, Ewans describes the contemporary position of Afghanistan, in particular the rise of the Taliban and future outlook for the country. This on first glance appears to be extremely useful, as there are very few up to date books on Afghanistan that include the 9/11 attack and modern perspective on the Taliban. Yet, Ewans goes too far here, condemning Afganistan as a failed and "wretched" state. His opinions on the Taliban leadership contradict one another, and it is clear a hint of bias enters the author's attitude towards the end of the novel. He goes so far as to deem Afghanistan the center of global terrorism.
On the one hand, Ewans may indeed be correct in these opinions. But, the underlying tone seems to point towards the notion of unsupported and hasty conclusions of the part of the author, who had for the better part of the novel maintained an objective point of view. Now, more than ever, an attitude of understanding and hope for the state of Afghanistan is needed to help its people. To call it a wretched state and the center of global terror will only further antagonism and prevent cooperation with Afghanistan for both the masses and foreign diplomats. Hence, while I would recommend the book for a quick overview of Afghani history, I would warn the reader against giving creit to the author's bias towards the end of the book.

Shirin Raza

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Summary: Afghanistan in a nutshell
Review: Ewans, Martin
2002 Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics. New York: Harper Collins Publishers. Contains 37 pictures and 8 maps; Appendix; Extensive Notes.

Martin Ewans's book on Afghanistan is a well-organized, and well-documented source on not only the history of Afghanistan, but also its people. The book is divided into twenty-one chapters. The beginning chapters deal with the Afghani people, as well as their religion and the geographical location of the country. However, the main emphasis of the book deals with the history of Afghanistan and all of the leaders and conquerors it has had. According to Ewans, there is no documented history of Afghanistan until the sixth century BC, when the empire of Cyrus the Great absorbed it. However, the book does not go into in-depth history until the period of Alexander the Great when he made Afghanistan part of his empire while trying to conquer the world. Due to all of the turnover in leaders after the book does a quick overview of the leaders after Alexander the Great, approximately the time period from the 300 BC until the 1700's.
After the 1500's the book begins to go into extensive coverage of the emergence of the first Afghan kingdom in the 1700's under the rule of the Ghilzai tribe, when it revolted against the Safavids. Ewan goes on to say that after a lot of in-fighting and revolt, Shah Amhed Kahn emerged as the leader of what is now today Afghanistan.
The book then moves on to the 1800's when Dost Mohammed rose to power through the use of force when he took Kabul. The book then delves into the first and second Anglo-Afghan wars, each having one chapter devoted to it. After these chapters, Ewans devotes approximately on chapter to the successive rulers of Afghanistan. The book breezes through Afghan history until the rule of Mohammed Daoud Kahn in the 1950's. The book explains how Daoud found himself in the middle of the Cold War and how he tended to side with his Soviet neighbors. However, this ended when the royal family, in pursuit of a constitutional monarchy, forced Daoud to resign in 1957. The book then discuss the rule of King Zahir and his constitutional monarchy until he was overthrown in a coup by Daoud himself while the king was in Italy for eye surgery. However, this reign only lasted for five years, when Daoud is also overthrown in a coup by the PDPA. The book then deals with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The book devotes three chapters to the Soviet invasion, dealing with the invasion itself, the occupation of the soviets and the resistance of the Afghani people, and eventually the withdrawal of the soviets. The book then deals with the civil war that ensued after the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, ending with the short rule of Sebghatullah Mujadidi. After this period, Ewan discusses the entrance of the Taliban and their subsequent rise to power. Ewan devotes two chapters to the Taliban, ending the book with a quizzical outlook on the future of Afghanistan. Ewan feels that as long as the Taliban and their opponents are in opposition of each other, the future of Afghanistan is highly speculative. An epilogue is added to discuss the September eleventh events, and Ewan ends his book describing Afghanistan as a "failed state". However, Ewan goes on to say that bin Laden and his followers represent a sick and twisted mind and a subculture of religious fanaticism. Ewan ends his book with acknowledging the issue of global terrorism but says that it is outside the scope of the book, as well as the Muslim attitude towards the West.
Bryon Wait

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Summary: Excellent Survey
Review: Just what I was looking for. From its first beginnings till the Taliban takeover. It will show "W" why it will never be an independent country. I found it a captivating read up until the Taliban invasion. From there I have other books. I would recommend this as serving to present the history of Afghanistan.

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Summary: Succinct, Erudite, and Interesting
Review: The author shares a vast knowledge of Afghanistan. A more thorough discussion of the Shinwari tribe and Waziristan would have been useful. The Ghaznavid gold dinar, dated 1011 C.E. depicted in Plate 1, appears to have been struck in Neishabur, though the inscription is not clear where the mint is located. Nadir Shah Afshar's conquest of what was to become Afghanistan in 1747 is brief; however, the discussion of the 20th C. Nadir Shah Abdali is more than adequate.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Survey
Review: This is a great book for readers interested in a brief survey of Afghanistan's political history and foreign relations from ancient times to 9/11. Author Ewans, a retired British diplomat who served in Kabul, writes superbly, stays focused on issues that are important and interesting, and has a droll sense of the role played by stupidity in foreign affairs. The highlights are the chapters on Anglo-Afghan relations in the 19th century and the Soviet occupation and civil war in the 1980s and 1990s. Ewans does stumble in early chapters that reshash boring dynastic histories from the middle ages (hence my rating of four stars), but this is the only flaw in an otherwise excellent book.

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Summary: A country ravaged by centuries of war
Review: This is a great history of Afghanistan, easily written for those who do not lknow much about the area. It gives a wonderful overview of the history of Afghanistan, the origins of its tribes and languages. For anybody interested in Afghanistan this is a good place to start.