Reform and Rebellion in Afghanistan, 1919-1929; King Amanullah's Failure to Modernize a Tribal Society

by Leon B. Poullada

Book by Poullada, Leon B.

318 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1973

About the author

Leon Baqueiro Poullada was an American diplomat who served as an Ambassador to Togo under the Kennedy Administration.

Reviews

[Nelson DeWitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing book which provides a great summary of Ammanullahs reign and fall, while at times Poullada seems a little too partisan on the pro-Ammanullah sign the book still provides a factual recounting with great analysis and wonderful sourcing. It's also fun to read most of the time, at a few points Poullada begins listing large tranches of laws or names most of the book flows well and is interspersed with interesting, enlightening, or funny facts making it a smoother read than most history books with a similar level of academic rigor.

[Rashad Raoufi]

every clearly writtena nd easy to understand, goes deep into all factors and seems to have been wel researched given the enromous difficulties. i cant hlpe but feel that reading through his agenda is to focus on tribal conflict which somewhat downplays some of the other factors that led to the downfall of the the amanullah regime, i think that he plays into it far too much at the expense of other factors, maonly forgein beneficators to the rebellion and dishonest courtiers. for example. the karzai is durrani yet one of the most deadly taliban was mullah baradar,who is also from the same tribe, and he hurt the karzai regime even though his borther and inner circle were allgedly giving privildges to the own tribe agaisnt others, or that taraki and hafiz were both ghilzai and so was hekmetyar and there was no love lost between them yet other factors like ISI are instrumental in hekmetyars power.

[Sadia Sulaiman · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is a good historical account of Amir Amanullah's reform effort