The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia PDF
Preview The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia
GAME THE GREAT ! KJhe Strugglejor 'Umpire in Central CAsia •M* "PETER HOPKIRK ISTRULY THE LAUREATE OF THE GREAT CAME. -JAN MORRIS Universal praise for Peter Hopkirk and The Great Game "Thisbookisrequired readingforthoseconcernedwiththeunsettling condition in Central Asia and the Caucasus." — John Toland, author ofAdolfHitler "Tracing the arc of conflict and intrigue across 'the Roof of the World,' Hopkirk suppliesplentyofintelligible reasons why it seemed reasonable to Europeans to 'try and hustle the East' In a series of thrillingchapterswhichwilldelighttheaficionadoofBuchan, Kipling and George MacDonald Fraser(and whoissodull astobeimmuneto that trio), Hopkirk brings us as varied a gallery of characters as could bedesired Lookatthemaptodayandyouwillseethatinnumerable pressing matters, from the status of Tibet to the continued Russian occupation of some Japanese home islands, date from the opening moves in the Great Game The popularity of pseudo-strategic twentieth-century terminology about everywhere being 'a dagger pointedattheheartofeverywhereelsewasuniquelyappropriatetothe great Central Asian superpower jostle, where daggers bristled at random in all directions. But the bugles sounded in vain. Even as I write, 'the East' is reassertingitstraditional, devoutshapeand reckon- ing the presence oiferinghee (infidel foreigners) as a mere evanescent episode in its long, traditional resistance/' — Christopher Hitchens, Washington Post Book World "The Great Game is the grandfather of all spy stories. Forget about — modern espionage yarns; this is much more exciting and its all for real." —Phillip Knightley, author of TheMasterSpy "At first this big book looks like a fairly standard military/diplomatic history: an account of the nineteenth-century struggle between Englandand Russiafordominancein CentralAsia Buttheauthor, a former London Times reporter with extensive experience in the Mideast and Asia, has notjust written an updated glorification of the British Empire. He has looked into the Russian historical record extensively, and he tells his story with a chivalrous respect for the Russianpointofview. Welearnhowthegreatpushsouthwardwasthe Russian version of Manifest Destiny, and we can sense that Leonid ataSUTTBR STREET •AtfFJtANCISCO, CA Him Brezhnev'sarrogantand criminalinvasion ofan unstableAfghanistan in 1979wasnothingnew Hopkirkhasagiftforvividwritingthatis excitingwithoutbeingoverblown. HisaccountoftheAfghan uprising in 1841 is especially gripping and horrifying As Hopkirk points out,afterthebreakupoftheSovietUniontheCentralAsianpeoplesare once again independent. Today's Great Powers have a second chance — to behave in a civilized way there and elsewhere." —James North, New York Newsday "Peter Hopkirk, ajournalist in a previous incarnation, writes history asifitwereanadventurestory (wellisn'tit?), and in hislatestbook, he is in great form." — Ray Alan, TheNewLeader "What in the hands of a lesser writer could have been a collection of — obscurefacts, figures and personalities is here transformed thanks to — vibrantwritingand remarkableorganization i—ntoarivetingdramaof nineteenth-century imperialistic power-politics Hopkirk packs his narrativewithenoughdeath, double-dealing, andderring-dotokeepa TV miniseries surging along for months Hopkirk's accounts of incursionsintosuch exoticlocales as Samarkand, Bokhara, and Lhasa are among the most exciting in his fast-paced work He maintains thesuspensewithassurance,andalsoisevenhandedinhistreatmentof the duplicity that marks the activities not only of the area's Muslim natives but of the Russians and English as well Working on a sprawlingcanvascrammedwithincidentssetincouncilchambersand Himalayan mountain passes and with a cast that includes Queen Victoria, tsars, trigger-happy militarists, fanatical khans, sepoys, and Sherpas, Hopkirk organizes his material with a master's touch. The result is historical writing of ext—raordinary power and readability." Kirkus Reviews (in a starred review) "Nobody else alive could handle this terrific subject with such a — combination of skill, knowledge, enthusiasm and insight Peter Hopkirk is truly the Laureate of the Great Game." — Jan Morris Hfc7 THE GREAT GAME Other books by theauthor Foreign Devils on the Silk Road Trespassers on the Roof of the World Setting the East Ablaze Like Hidden Fire THE GAME GREAT The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia PETER HOPKIRK 'Now I shall go far and far into the North, playing the Great Game...' Rudyard Kipling, Kim, 1901 Kodansha International New York Tokyo London • • — KodanshaAmerica, Inc., 114 Fifth Avenue, NewYork, NewYork 10011, U.S.A. Kodansha International Ltd. 17-14Otowa 1-chome, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112,Japan Published in 1994by KodanshaAmerica, Inc. Thisisa Kodansha Globebook. Firstpublished in Great Britain in 1990 as The Great Game: OnSecretServiceinHighAsia byJohn Murray (Publishers) Ltd. Copyright © 1990, 1992 by Peter Hopkirk. All rights reserved. Printed in the United StatesofAmerica 97 98 99 00 Q/FF 10 9 8 7 6 5 LibraryofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Hopkirk, Peter. Thegreatgame : the struggleforempirein central Asia/ Peter Hopkirk. p. cm. Includesbibliographic references (p. 527-542) and index. ISBN 1-56836-022-3 — 1. Asia, Central Politicsand Government. 2. Asia, Central — — — Relations Soviet Union. 3. Soviet Union Relations Asia, — — Britain Relations Asia, Central. I. Title. DS329.4.H67 1992 320.958—dc20 92-16925 CIP
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