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Book Review - The Making of Modern Afghanistan by B. D. Hopkins 2008

The Making of Modern Afghanistan is based on the author's doctoral dissertation, University of Cambridge.  The work looks at what was essentially the drawing up of Afghanistan by the British East India Company (EIC) and gives an outline of the political and economic history of the region between roughly 1800 and 1850.

The book has a few main themes, the first being the effect of Mountstuart Elphinstone's seminal early intelligence gathering work on which the EIC based their conceptual framework of 'Afghanistan' and some of the important misconceptions perpetuated throughout their dealings with the region.

The second theme goes to in some way refuting the 'Great Game' between the Russians and the British as being the most important factor in the policy decisions the EIC made with regard to the region as opposed to other more pressing regional issues.

The third is the poor foundation on which political power bases could be built within the region, and the last is the effect of the EIC's decisions upon the region.

The work is interesting in terms of the political history of a region that has been a centre of conflict for the British in the 19th century, the Soviets in the 20th century and the Americans in the 21st century.  This may be seen as an unusual choice for a review however there are some interesting issues in terms of intelligence gathering that I may do a minor post on next.

Some of the themes are well drawn out and there are certainly an abundance of facts presented, however I wouldn't say it was a page turner, rather solid background information and the economic and political effects of certain policies are still relevant to the modern reader.

I picked this book up as background to EIC intelligence gathering however I would really only recommend it to people with a strong interest in the history of Afghanistan, British India or the EIC.

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