Look at Afghanistan's neighbors and you will begin to understand its historical importance. Iran, to its immediate west captured Afghanistan when Persians ruled most of this part of the world, but they were not the first. Coming from the west Alexander the Great Hellenized central Asia before the Persian Empire ever existed. Afghanistan has also been conquered by Mongolia (Genghis Khan), China, Russia, Great Britain, the United States, and the Taliban.
Which is why Steven Tanner's military history is an interesting lens with which to focus upon a country surrounded by towering, cave-riddled mountains, impassable deserts, and Siberian winters. For all its rich detail, however, the overriding observation is one which most of us already know: Afghans are tribal. Their origins are in isolated mountain villages, their interactions with one another rare, and with the outside world rarer still. They unify only to disperse invaders and then retreat to their redoubts. Because Tanner's book is primarily an examination of military strategy other interesting characteristics can only be inferred. For example, women appear outside their homes only in the country's larger cities and only when overlords encourage it. Russia was particularly good at putting women into the work force. The Taliban, of course, did the opposite. Foodstuffs are only discussed in terms of what is required to supply soldiers. Cultural practices emerge only insofar as the degree to which they have from time-to-time been influenced by foreigners. In short, the mosaic presented in this text is tantalizing (and outdated, it was penned in 2002), but probably not worth the slog for most readers.
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