Pam C. (PamC) reviewed Retreat from Kabul: The Catastrophic British Defeat in Afghanistan, 1842 on + 117 more book reviews
From the back cover:
In January 1842 a solitary horseman, bruised and bleeding, made his way slowly to the safety of the British garrison ninety miles from Kabul. He was all that remained of Britain's Army of the Indus - four thousand English and Indian troops, and twelve thousand followers - that had left Kabul a week before.
Retreat from Kabul is the absorbing and gruesome story of how the world's greatest military power learned a bloody and previously unimagined lesson by underestimating the iron resistance of Afghans to foreign invasion and intrigue. It is a tale of heroism in the face of unspeakable brutality, of diplomatic folly, of great sacrifice, and heartrending tragedy. It is an entrancing look, well-told and extensively researched, at what happens when cultures collide - a cautionary tale of the results of trying to control by force a country whose people deeply resent the foreign invader.
In January 1842 a solitary horseman, bruised and bleeding, made his way slowly to the safety of the British garrison ninety miles from Kabul. He was all that remained of Britain's Army of the Indus - four thousand English and Indian troops, and twelve thousand followers - that had left Kabul a week before.
Retreat from Kabul is the absorbing and gruesome story of how the world's greatest military power learned a bloody and previously unimagined lesson by underestimating the iron resistance of Afghans to foreign invasion and intrigue. It is a tale of heroism in the face of unspeakable brutality, of diplomatic folly, of great sacrifice, and heartrending tragedy. It is an entrancing look, well-told and extensively researched, at what happens when cultures collide - a cautionary tale of the results of trying to control by force a country whose people deeply resent the foreign invader.
