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A major history of Afghanistan and its changing political cultureAfghanistan 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 why the United States failed to avoid the same fate.

Islam and politics. --- Afghanistan --- History. --- Politics and government. --- Abdul Haq (Afghan leader). --- Afghan National Security Forces. --- Afghanistan. --- Agriculture. --- Ahmad Shah. --- Air pollution. --- Air taxi. --- Akbar. --- Ancien Régime. --- Arable land. --- Armistice. --- Assembly of Notables. --- Aurangzeb. --- Balkh. --- Behalf. --- Bolan Pass. --- Books of Kings. --- Bread. --- Cambridge University Press. --- Center of mass (relativistic). --- Chief of police. --- Chishti Order. --- Code of Federal Regulations. --- Community leader. --- Contingency plan. --- Defensive jihad. --- Diplomacy. --- Dost Mohammad Khan (Emir of Afghanistan). --- Early Muslim conquests. --- Elective monarchy. --- Ethnography. --- Evaporation. --- Extortion. --- Figure of the Earth. --- Figurehead. --- First Price. --- Gemstone. --- Ghazi (warrior). --- Government of Pakistan. --- Guideline. --- Hamid Karzai. --- Henry Fuseli. --- Herat. --- Hibatullah Akhundzada. --- Ideology. --- Inauguration. --- International community. --- Islamic party. --- Islamic republic. --- Kabul. --- Kandahar. --- Karakoram. --- Kuwait. --- Laser. --- Legislature. --- Luna 2. --- Madrasa. --- Mobile phone. --- Mongoloid. --- Muqaddimah. --- Nangarhar Province. --- Napoleonic era. --- Natural gas. --- North-West Frontier Province (1901–55). --- Novel. --- Olaf Caroe. --- Order of succession. --- Ownership. --- Pamiris. --- Pashtuns. --- Persecution. --- Persepolis. --- Pilot in command. --- Police state. --- Political structure. --- Primate city. --- Proclamation. --- Publication. --- Punjab (region). --- Reformism. --- Separation of church and state. --- Shah Shuja (Mughal prince). --- Shah. --- Simulation. --- Somalia. --- Soviet Central Asia. --- Taliban. --- Teacup. --- The Gentleman's Magazine. --- The Iraqis (party). --- Thomas Hobbes. --- Tribal chief. --- Tsardom of Russia. --- Uncertainty. --- Universal history. --- Utility aircraft. --- Vertical plane. --- Vice President of the United States. --- Western Power (networks corporation). --- Zalmay Khalilzad.