Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the Fall of the Taliban by Stephen Tanner

Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the Fall of the Taliban by Stephen Tanner is a decent if not terribly scholarly book on the military history of Afghanistan. Since the history of Afghanistan is usually related by various invaders this makes writing a coherent narrative rather difficult but the author does a decent job. Approximately the last third of the book is on the Soviet invasion and the Northern alliance/US invasion after September 11. The book ends on a rather sour note considering recent events. The author is rather triumphalist about the success of the Northern alliance and that there is no chance for the Taliban. It seems just about every day we're hearing about a new Canadian casualty this seems rather shortsighted of the author that the Taliban wouldn't try to come back.

Unfortunately there are no notes and a rather short bibliography but there are quite a few maps.



For more Afghanistan book reviews take a look at My Afghanistan bookshelf.

For reviews take a look at My Insurgency/Counterinsurgency, Partisan and Guerrilla Warfare bookshelf.