Modern Afghanistan: A History of Struggle and Survival

by Amin Saikal, Kirill Nourzhanov, Raven Farhadi

Afghanistan's history is a sad Soviet invasion in 1979; Pakistan-backed internal conflict in the 1980s; the Taliban regime and then the US invasion after the catastrophe of September 11th. Why does Afghanistan remain so vulnerable to domestic instability, foreign intervention and ideological extremism? Amin Saikal provides us with a sweeping new understanding of this troubled country that grounds Afghanistan's problems in rivalries stemming from a series of dynastic alliances within the successive royal families from the end of the eighteenth century to the pro-Communist coup of 1978. This is the definitive study of Afghanistan.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Amin Saikal is Distinguished Professor of Political Science, Public Policy Fellow, and Director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies (the Middle East and Central Asia) at the Australian National University. He is the author of The Rise and Fall of the Shah (Princeton) and Modern Afghanistan. He lives in Canberra.

Reviews

[Nawid · Rating 5 out of 5]

What an amazing read, extremely well structured. The analysis of the author and authenticity is great. Nearly in every other book written on the Afghan politics many authors come across to an impasse in critical issues such as analyzing ethno-tribal issues, which leads them to a reluctant way of 'hitting-around-the-bush' explanations, whereas the author in this book has authentically analyzed not only the admixture of ethnics but also the inter party conflicts in certain periods of time in the history of modern Afghanistan.
anyways one who tends to read this book, must at least have read couple of other 'elaborate' books on the Political History of Afghanistan...

[Antony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anything by Amin Saikal is worth reading. This is his third edition history of the country he originates from. Afghanistan's modern history is pretty complex; Saikal's starting point is with Ahmad Shah Durrani's founding of the country in 1747. Saikal makes that accessible and extremely interesting. This is hard to put down - it's that good. (Although I found mapping the royal lineages on a separate piece of paper helped a great deal.)

[Wes F · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing read that had so many good historical insights. The author did an excellent job of laying out the various historical stages in Afghanistan's modern history--and in looking at the underlying reasons why each of them failed to live up to expectations, or how they shot themselves in the foot. Very insightful read.

[Mena Hosai · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best history books I have read!!!

[Erica · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what an excellent, well-written, high-impact, detailed account in recognition of Afghanistan. I’d recommend for anyone. Lots of historic review and speculative thought looking onward. Lots of discuss points for book clubs.

The Story
This is an accessible, sincere look of both inner and outer perspective of both Afghan people and Afghanistan as nation-state.

The context, historically from timeline of events, observation, rationale, commentary, is all carefully curated to tell the more complete story. From traditional to progressive. What is visionary to ideal. Preservation yet as described from directional and shared yearning for national cohesion, stability, progress, and independence, everything in between.

It covers internal and external factions, foreign and domestic relations, intent and outcome. Policy, occupation, militarization, reformation, adaptation, along with leadership evaluation from strength and favorable to divided, oppositional viewpoints including a deeper dive into values and beliefs, culture, community, worldviews, and personhood.

The Writing
Very nice in-depth telling. Well-organized timeline of events. Transitions from chronological and topical with deftness. Open and honest. Captures intent, whether favorable or unfavorable consequence. Critique and telling of deeper story showing examples of ease and obstacles.

There is so much contained in this book. I will look forward to more.

Blog post

[M K · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's very thorough but very confusing. I couldn't keep the names and regions straight. Needs a family tree diagram, or several.

I was making my own Cliff Notes for the middle 1/3 of it, then gave up and just pushed through even if it didn't make total sense. That wasn't a bad approach but don't quiz me.

Was going to give 3 stars but I increased to 4 since it seemed authoritative and maybe the deficiency is me; I would need to read it two more times but on to something else.

[Andrew Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

Above average book on Afghanistan, lots of detail, lots of good analysis. This and Rasanyaganam's book are among the best I've read on Afghanistan. He has deep knowledge, excellent research. It may be a little boring as a first book on Afghanistan, probably better to read Rasanayaganam's book first, this is too detailed. He is weak at being succinct or poignant.

tho occasionally he says strange things, like he said the creation of Bangladesh was destabilizing, but that's a strange, minority opinion. Not many people see it that way.