Fasinating book it's almost hard to believe it was originally written in the late 1960's,
but it still remains an excellent account of whatvis undoubtedly Britain's worst military disaster.

This was truly a mind-boggling combination of poor decision making by both political and military leadershiptreating a wake of death and destruction in it's wake.

To truly understand the mistakes fully I believe (for me personally) maps showing the strategies and regions would have been incredibly helpful. This book almost give the feel this should be inherently understood because your reading the history of the battle. This may be true to a certain degree not having truly researched the topic before reading this book.. But I still feel it would greatly enhance the learning curve of what happened. Regardless this was both a tragic and fascinating look at the worst of what can go wrong in battle.

I delayed reading the whole book and made a mistake. The author has tried successfully to show and explain the British attempts to take control of Afghanistan, and this also teaches lessons about the current situation in this region.

The language is easy to learn, and the reader - even unfamiliar with this part of the history - can get an idea of the situation in which the British Empire is trying to gain a foothold in Afghanistan - and the subsequent failures.

I will follow the author - by the way, this book is part of a series of three books. I recommend the other two too - for India and Burma.

Retreat from Kabul tells the story of the British invasion of Afghanistan from 1839-42. Reading this book, the reader gets the sense that I've heard this story before. Warring tribal factions/families battling for control of the country, a colonizing power thinking that they can bring order and stability to the land and provide themselves a form of security (in this case the objective was India) so they launch an invasion overestimating their own capabilities while underestimating the Afghan abilities and pride to throw out the foreign invaders. Afghan pride runs deep indeed.

The result is as usual in Afghanistan is a complete quagmire with the invading power leaving with their confidence shaken, dead soldiers and goals unmet. While Retreat from Kabul is well-written, I think it suffers from an Afghanistan effect from me as a reader because I've read so many books on the place that the generals, Afghan leaders, and the invading flags may change but the end result is the same some imperial power is getting stuck in the sand. British, Russian, American, the history of Afghanistan seems to always repeat itself.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Sapere Books for a copy of this book.

I didn't realize that this was originally published in 1967. Having read quite a bit on this topic, I wondered why the author would bother publishing this now since this area has been covered extensively. Little did I know that this book serves as the source of the newer works. (I checked William Dalrymple's "Return of a King" and it cites this book as a source)

This book covers the first Anglo-Afghan war of 1839-42 and shows the folly and the hubris of the British heading out on a fool's errand. The books is written in very easy to read manner and paints a vivid picture of the the various decisions and indecisions leading up to the final conflict. I wish all history books were written like this one. Highly recommended

Originally published in 1967, Retreat from Kabul is a terrific account of the bloody conflict between the British and East Indian Company forces and their formidable foe the Afghan emir Barakzai. With George Bruce, it's popular history at its best. We get a very detailed overview of the First Anglo-Afghan War that lasted between 1839 and 1842 and the reasons behind the catastrophic British defeat following Britain's retreat and the evacuation of Kabul in early January 1842, culminating with the massacre of William Elphinston's army , a bloody slaughter from which few survived.
I remember reading this book for the first time in the early 80's because pertinent comparisons were made at the time between this traumatic episode in British military history and the Aghan quagmire that heralded the end of the Soviet Union almost 150 years later.....


Many thanks to Netgalley and Sapere Books for the opportunity to (re)read this wonderful book prior to its release date and kudos to Sapere for making this fascinating story available once again