Bibliograph

Return of a king, The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42, William Dalrymple

Type

Label

Return of a king, The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42, William Dalrymple

Language

eng

Index

no index present

Literary Form

non fiction

Main title

Return of a king

Medium

electronic resource eBook

Nature of contents

dictionaries

Responsibility statement

William Dalrymple

Sub title

The Battle for Afghanistan, 1839-42

Summary

From the prizewinning historian, a masterly retelling of the first Afghan war, perhaps the West's greatest imperial disaster in the East: an important parable of neocolonial ambition and cultural collision, folly, and hubris.With access to previously untapped primary sources, William Dalrymple gives us the most immediate and comprehensive account we have had of the spectacular first battle for Afghanistan. We see the British invade the remote kingdom in 1839, reestablishing Shah Shuja on the throne—this time as their puppet—and ushering in a period of conflict still unresolved today. We see the Afghan people rise to the call for jihad against the foreign occupiers in 1841, poorly equipped tribesmen routing an entire army of what was then the most powerful military nation in the world: more than eighteen thousand British troops retreated from Kabul through treacherous mountain passes, and only one man made it through to Jellalabad. Dalrymple illuminates

Table Of Contents

No easy place to rule -- An unsettled mind -- The great game begins -- The mouth of hell -- The flag of holy war -- We fail from our ignorance -- All order is at an end -- The wail of bugles -- The death of a king -- A war for no wise purpose

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