[Ahhangar]

Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival
By Amin Saikal, Ravan Farhadi



GOOGLE BOOK LIMITED PREVIEW


http://www.amazon.co...3046738&sr=11-1



Synopsis

The treacherous mountain passes and blasted desert plains of Afghanistan have been the graveyard of every would-be conquering army since the days of Alexander the Great. With America, Britain and NATO committed to a long-term political and military engagement there, it is imperative to understand the country's complex and bloody history. Afghanistan emerged in the mid-eighteenth century from the collapse of the Persian Safavid Empire and the decline of the Mughal dynasty in India. The nineteenth century saw the country ravaged by the rivalry of warring elites, and their great power supporters. In recent times, Afghanistan has experienced the Soviet invasion of 1979, the Pakistan-backed internal conflict of the 1990s, the Taliban regime and then the US invasion after the catastrophe of 9/11. Today, whilst the US-backed government is struggling to expand its control beyond Kabul, narco-warlords, jihadists and Western troops fight out the battle for control of this strategically vital country. Why has Afghanistan's course of development been so turbulent? Why does it remain so vulnerable to domestic instability, foreign intervention and ideological extremism?

In reconstructing the tempestuous narrative of modern Afghanistan, Amin Saikal provides a sweeping new understanding of its troubled past. He identifies the country's inability to develop stable political structures as stemming from the inter-dynastic rivalry (exacerbated by polygamy) that scarred successive royal families from the end of the eighteenth century until the pro-Communist coup of April 1978. Outside interventions further weakened the country internally, preventing socio-economic development and leaving the country ripe for the politics of ideological extremism. "Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival" is the definitive study of Afghanistan and its troubles. It will be vital reading for all those who are interested in the changing politics of the Middle East and Central Asia.


Publisher and industry reviews

Jacket review

'Saikal's contribution to our understanding and analysis of modern Afghanistan post 9/11 is a very important one.' -International Affairs 'Fascinating...if you want an insider's interpretation of modern Afghanistan (and one that is remarkably free from one-sided ideology), this is an excellent primer.' -Sydney Morning Herald 'authoritative' -The Middle East Magazine 'Excellent and lucid' -Peter Avery, King's College Cambridge


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Book: State, Revolutions, and Superpowers in Afghanistan



http://www.amazon.co...ASIN/0275934608

Book Description

This volume studies the process of nation-state building, its role in modernization and developments in Afghanistan following World War II to the period of Soviet occupation of the country in December 1979, and the struggle of various social strata for social transformation in the country. The book further explores the policies of the two superpowers--the United States and the Soviet Union--and their economic assistance in Afghanistan's modernization projects following World War II. The book offers insight into this superpower struggle, examining how each superpower tried to win Afghanistan to its side by supporting a particular social strata within the state apparatus. Finally, it analyzes how one of the contending superpowers--the Soviet Union, having failed to establish its influence in Afghanistan--decided to intervene in the country's affairs in December 1979. The book also examines the emergence and development of the Islamic movement and the "Jihad" struggle waged against the regime and the Soviet forces in Afghanistan. It explores the basis of U.S. policy in aiding and abetting the Pakistan-based Islamic parties and the future of U.S.-Soviet struggle in Afghanistan. Much of the book is based on Afghanistan's primary sources as well as U.S. secret documents seized by the Iranian students during the U.S. hostage crisis in Iran. The book links a survey of the literature to interviews with prominent policymakers who were active in Afghanistan's development strategies. The book should appeal to scholars and researchers on the Middle East and South Asia, as well as to lay persons interested in a new perspective and interpretation of Afghanistan politics.

About the Author
HAFIZULLAH EMADI had worked for several years as a writer and reporter for the Kabul Times Daily, as well as for a number of other private newspapers and periodicals in Kabul, Afghanistan. He is the author of several articles and papers.

[Ahhangar]

Courtesy of Parsistani:

[QUOTE=Parsistani;8984]I have posted some books from google that are written about events which are close to that of Awghanistan´s. For example about the war we have, the war between the different nations there, otr about the history of the british empire which also explain their plans and agendas how to conquer countries by using war-like and backward nations as tools. All those books are not only reflect Afghanistans situation, also in a passive way since most of them do not deal with Afghanistan, but they show us reasons from other parts of the world we have also in Afgh.[/QUOTE]



General


The History of the British Empire in Asia


Race and Nation: Ethnic Systems in the Modern World


In God's Name: Genocide and Religion in the Twentieth Century


War in Human Civilization: environment, genes, and culture pt. 2


Medieval Islamic Civilization: An Encyclopedia


Landlord and Peasant in Persia: A Study of Land Tenure and Land Revenue



Reading about the creation of Osmani identity and later Turkish identity


An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire


The Empire of the steppes - A History of Central Asia


Turkey - Who are ''Turks''


Islamic Identity and Development: Studies of the Islamic Periphery - (Anatolia)


Konjugationsgeschichte der türkischen Sprache



Ahhangar

[Ahhangar]

The Dust of Empire - The Race For Mastery of the Asian Heartlands




SEARCH INSIDE BOOK


Synopsis

A "rattling good"* inquiry into the historical impact of Western involvement with Central Asia, spelling out the implications for the United States and its allies today *( New York Times Book Review ). When Charles de Gaulle learned that France's former colonies in Africa had chosen independence, the great general shrugged dismissively, "They are the dust of empire. " But as Americans have learned, particles of dust from remote and seemingly medieval countries can, at great human and material cost, jam the gears of a superpower. In The Dust of Empire , Karl E. Meyer examines the present and past of the Asian heartland in a book that blends scholarship with reportage, providing fascinating detail about regions and peoples now of urgent concern to America: the five Central Asian republics, the Caspian and the Caucasus, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan and long-dominant Russia. He provides the context for America's war on terrorism, for Washington's search for friends and allies in an Islamic world rife with extremism, and for the new politics of pipelines and human rights in an area richer in the former than the latter.

He offers a rich and complicated tapestry of a region where empires have so often come to grief-a cautionary tale.

Ahhangar

[Parsistani]

It is a good academic book that predicts Afghanistan spliting up and Khurasan forming.
http://press.princet...itles/9144.html