LEADER 04245nam 2200709Ia 450 001 9910458885703321 005 20220110163800.0 010 $a1-282-54485-3 010 $a9786612544859 010 $a1-4008-3453-8 024 7 $a10.1515/9781400834532 035 $a(CKB)2670000000018952 035 $a(EBL)530320 035 $a(OCoLC)615635654 035 $a(SSID)ssj0000411382 035 $a(PQKBManifestationID)11305525 035 $a(PQKBTitleCode)TC0000411382 035 $a(PQKBWorkID)10355946 035 $a(PQKB)11340285 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC530320 035 $a(StDuBDS)EDZ0000514845 035 $a(MdBmJHUP)muse43086 035 $a(DE-B1597)453708 035 $a(OCoLC)979592903 035 $a(OCoLC)992502933 035 $a(DE-B1597)9781400834532 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL530320 035 $a(CaPaEBR)ebr10386042 035 $a(CaONFJC)MIL254485 035 $a(EXLCZ)992670000000018952 100 $a20100121d2010 uy 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurun#---|uu|u 181 $ctxt$2rdacontent 182 $cc$2rdamedia 183 $acr$2rdacarrier 200 10$aAfghanistan $ea cultural and political history /$fThomas Barfield 205 $aCourse Book 210 $aPrinceton $cPrinceton University Press$dc2010 215 $a1 online resource (404 pages) 225 1 $aPrinceton studies in Muslim politics 300 $aDescription based upon print version of record. 311 0 $a0-691-15441-4 311 0 $a0-691-14568-7 320 $aIncludes bibliographical references and index. 327 $tFront matter --$tCONTENTS --$tList of Illustrations --$tPreface --$tIntroduction --$tChapter one. People and Places --$tChapter two. Conquering and Ruling Premodern Afghanistan --$tChapter three. Anglo-Afghan Wars and State Building in Afghanistan --$tChapter four. Afghanistan in the Twentieth Century: State and Society in Conflict --$tChapter five. Afghanistan Enters the Twenty-first Century --$tChapter six. Some Conclusions --$tNotes --$tReferences --$tIndex 330 $aAfghanistan traces the historic struggles and the changing nature of political authority in this volatile region of the world, from the Mughal Empire in the sixteenth century to the Taliban resurgence today. Thomas Barfield introduces readers to the bewildering diversity of tribal and ethnic groups in Afghanistan, explaining what unites them as Afghans despite the regional, cultural, and political differences that divide them. He shows how governing these peoples was relatively easy when power was concentrated in a small dynastic elite, but how this delicate political order broke down in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when Afghanistan's rulers mobilized rural militias to expel first the British and later the Soviets. Armed insurgency proved remarkably successful against the foreign occupiers, but it also undermined the Afghan government's authority and rendered the country ever more difficult to govern as time passed. Barfield vividly describes how Afghanistan's armed factions plunged the country into a civil war, giving rise to clerical rule by the Taliban and Afghanistan's isolation from the world. He examines why the American invasion in the wake of September 11 toppled the Taliban so quickly, and how this easy victory lulled the United States into falsely believing that a viable state could be built just as easily. Afghanistan is essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how a land conquered and ruled by foreign dynasties for more than a thousand years became the "graveyard of empires" for the British and Soviets, and what the United States must do to avoid a similar fate. 410 0$aPrinceton studies in Muslim politics. 606 $aIslam and politics$zAfghanistan$xHistory 607 $aAfghanistan$xPolitics and government 607 $aAfghanistan$xHistory 607 $aAfghanistan$xSocial conditions 615 0$aIslam and politics$xHistory. 676 $a958.1 700 $aBarfield$b Thomas J$g(Thomas Jefferson),$f1950-$01055064 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910458885703321 996 $aAfghanistan$92488177 997 $aUNINA