A Political And Diplomatic History of Afghanistan, 1863-1901
by M Hassan Kakar
Kakar knows the material extremely well. He looks through 19th-century Afghanistan in a very professional way. It is a very detailed history, which helps you understand that Afghanistan’s interaction with the international community is not recent. There is a tendency to think – Oh, the Afghans, they’ve never really dealt with foreigners. In fact successful Afghan rulers specialised in dealing with foreigners by getting them to fund their states and equip their militaries.
