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Books, the 570 pages done at last! edition
Jul. 4th, 2008 04:41 pmBooks 2008: 82 (non-fiction)
82. Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Asia, Karl Meyer and Shareen Brysac (New York, 1999).
This is an ambitious book, to say the least, and took me some weeks to finish. It recounts, and attempts to analyse, the conflicts between the great powers - Russia, Britain, later America and Germany as well - for control of central Asia. It spans from the end of the eighteenth century to the post-WWII twentieth, and concentrates mainly on the regions of Afghanistan, Pakistan (in the nineteenth century the North-West Frontier Province) and Tibet.
It gives a lively picture of both the personalities involved and of the major concerns and obsessions of the times, such as exploration, cartography and oh noes! the Russians are coming!
I'm not sufficiently well-versed in the history of these periods and regions to comment on their accuracy or analysis. However, their logic and their conclusions seem reasonably plausible.
A very solid introduction to the topics and the region.
In other news, I am made wholly of sloth, hunger and hate today. Gah.
82. Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Asia, Karl Meyer and Shareen Brysac (New York, 1999).
This is an ambitious book, to say the least, and took me some weeks to finish. It recounts, and attempts to analyse, the conflicts between the great powers - Russia, Britain, later America and Germany as well - for control of central Asia. It spans from the end of the eighteenth century to the post-WWII twentieth, and concentrates mainly on the regions of Afghanistan, Pakistan (in the nineteenth century the North-West Frontier Province) and Tibet.
It gives a lively picture of both the personalities involved and of the major concerns and obsessions of the times, such as exploration, cartography and oh noes! the Russians are coming!
I'm not sufficiently well-versed in the history of these periods and regions to comment on their accuracy or analysis. However, their logic and their conclusions seem reasonably plausible.
A very solid introduction to the topics and the region.
In other news, I am made wholly of sloth, hunger and hate today. Gah.
