The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia in Espionage Aficionados

Jul 08, 2017 Phrodrick slowed his growing backlog rated it really liked it

In The Great Game, Peter Hopkirk has reported a lot of history with just enough analysis. Strongly recommended for both the serious student of history and the more general reader looking to get a foundation in a complicated and often ignored portion of world history. My caution is that it is too easy to think of this period as a mirror of or direct predictor of what is now happening in Afghanistan, Pakistan and neighboring areas.

The Great Game constitutes my second attempt to build a background In The Great Game, Peter Hopkirk has reported a lot of history with just enough analysis. Strongly recommended for both the serious student of history and the more general reader looking to get a foundation in a complicated and often ignored portion of world history. My caution is that it is too easy to think of this period as a mirror of or direct predictor of what is now happening in Afghanistan, Pakistan and neighboring areas.

The Great Game constitutes my second attempt to build a background on a region described as the Top of the World. The prior read Tournament of Shadows: The Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asiawhile good enough in its way is a distinct second place to The Great Game. What makes Hopkirk the better historian of this period is that he has stripped away the biographical material and focused on events and motives. In other words less about who the individuals were and more about what specifically Russia and Great Briton were doing and what they hoped to accomplish.

Russia depending on the period was engaged in
1. What might be thought of as Russia’s version of Manifest Destiny. From a Russian point of view, the natural boundaries of Russia could include everything east of the Caucuses all the way to the Pacific (At one point Russia had active control of Alaska and the Pacific Northwest south into California) curbed only by whatever parts of India that England failed to hold and as much of China as she failed to hold.
2. The place where aggressive military officers could demonstrate their fitness for higher station and bigger titles. That is the Imperial Court could be counted upon to reward success and deny failure. The gold is for the winner as long as he takes all the risks
3. Part of a vague and almost legendary belief that Russia was destined to rule the world.

The other recognized partner in The Great Game was Great Briton. Her situation was relatively simple.
1. Protect existing holdings from real and perceived threat by Imperial Russia.
2. Combine intelligence activity to understand the routes a Russian invasion might take, with developing client states friendly to Great Briton.

What the Great Game fails to analyze is the thinking and interests of the many peoples who would fight against, ally with or otherwise own all of the ground that the two recognized powers would invade, fight over or otherwise manipulate in favor of goals rarely consistent with the culture or needs of the peoples who were already there.

The absence of this third/fourth/however many points of view leads me to caution readers against thinking that with this book they can speak definitively about the challenges Soviet Russia failed to overcome in the end of their empire; or the reasons why the American Invasion had to last as long as it has while being careful about purposes and minimal goals.

Hopkirk will often remind us that this or that Mongol or Turkoman leader was born to intrigue and treachery. He is clear that religion, especially the Muslim religion was an important part of why the Europeans were unwelcome and violently resisted. There is a wonderful description of the arrival of a Muslim party in a Russian village. They are appalled at the visibility of Russian women and offended by the presence of and apparent worship of the idols (Icons) in Russian Churches. Hopkirk is also quick to contrast the deliberate attempts to remain remote by the leadership and peoples in what are now famous tourist places like Herat or Tibet.

There are so many details missing. Nationalism and religion continue to render Europeans, especially their military as automatically to be resisted. In many of these cultures, raiding remains a part of what people do. Complete with family owned and handed down ambush positions. Villages can be situated so as to control entrance/exit for military purposes, even at the cost of commercial traffic.

The Great Game is excellent at the history it does relate. The political and military motives, moves and thinking of England and Russia are well told. By design the many local peoples are not the purpose of this history. It is this part of the story that is most critical to a modern reader looking for historic answers to questions relating to modern regional geopolitics. ...more

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Feb 10, 2012 Philip rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: central-asia, 5-stars, great-game, tibet-nonfiction, mountains, british-empire, desert-island-books, heroes-younghusband, russia, biography-themed

First thoughts: Am halfway through listening to this (i.e., about 8 hours in), but as excellent as the whole thing is, am going to take a little break. Like a good action movie, there is a lot of exciting plot offset with the occasional big "set piece," which at this point is the First Anglo-Afghan War which ended in the disastrous 1842 Retreat from Kabul...and I am frankly exhausted. Time for something a little lighter, before I get into Part II...

...and I'm back and I'm done and my goodness, t First thoughts: Am halfway through listening to this (i.e., about 8 hours in), but as excellent as the whole thing is, am going to take a little break. Like a good action movie, there is a lot of exciting plot offset with the occasional big "set piece," which at this point is the First Anglo-Afghan War which ended in the disastrous 1842 Retreat from Kabul...and I am frankly exhausted. Time for something a little lighter, before I get into Part II...

...and I'm back and I'm done and my goodness, that was just epic!

While Hopkirk has written numerous other books that take place both before and after the Great Game, this one is rightly seen as his magnum opus. As I just wrote in my review of Michael Lewis' The Premonition: A Pandemic Story, I am constantly amazed how anyone can take such a complex story and turn it into a coherent, rollicking tale - but both these authors make it look easy.

That said, while the story is chock-a-block with fascinating and even admirable characters, neither the British nor the Russians (nor for that matter any of the multitudinous Central Asian powers) come off looking very good here. The whole story is a condemnation of Great White colonial ambition and unchecked hubris, as (initially) Russia and then England endlessly ride roughshod over what today are all pretty much the various "-stans."* But at the risk of sounding un-PC, the Asians themselves also come off pretty generally as a brutal, primitive and/or fanatical collection of tribes and khanates. And when the Chinese also finally join the fray via their annexation of "Kashgaria," the stage is then fully set for that epic clash of cultures between China, Russia and "the West" (in the form of mainly England/U.S.) that continues to this day in terms of Chinese expansionism (both westward by land and southward by sea), Russian annexation of Crimea and hegemony in the Arctic, and the never-ending invasions of Afghanistan.** Indeed, just as "The Great War" later had to be renamed "World War I" (of II), I'm wondering if we are witnessing the beginning of "The Second Great Game" or at least "Cold War II…"

As with all of Hopkirk's books, I learned a lot about not only historical events of which I had little prior knowledge, but also how they linked together. I'd heard of Chitral before, but had no idea what exactly it was or how it played into the overall Great Game picture/chronology. And I had also never realized that the Russo-Japanese War was happening just as Frank Younghusband was rolling into Lhasa, and how Russia's loss there played a part in turning England's mood against the Tibetan "mission," since it helped point out that the greater future threat to Britain came not from Moscow, but from Germany; and when THAT fight began, they were going to need Russia as an ally, not an enemy. (And for that story, see Hopkirk's next book, Like Hidden Fire: The Plot to Bring Down the British Empire.)

Anyway…an outstanding story, if perhaps about some less than proud moments in history. And as always when I read such books, it whets my appetite for more - which is why I plan to soon get around to such peripheral books (most of which I've owned for years but never read) as Macartney At Kashgar: New Light On British, Chinese, And Russian Activities In Sinkiang, 1890-1918, The Relief of Chitral and - which should go without saying - Flashman in the Great Game.

* And not just Central Asia; it's important to remember that at this same time, England was continuing its less-than-benign empire building in India and Africa, as well as its unconscionable abuse of my ancestors in Ireland.

** It's Mark Twain who is credited with saying that "history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes," and that definitely sounds like something he'd say. But while it's clever, it is also untrue - history absolutely fucking repeats itself, with Afghanistan being the best current example, from Alexander to Genghis Khan to the Persians, British, Russians, Americans...And yet after all that, the soon-to-be-back in power Taliban are little different than the mobs who killed Cavagnari and his men in Kabul in 1880. Although just as I was reading about the attack on the Bala Hissar, I was also watching the latest videos of the Redneck Revolt at the U.S. Capitol on 06 January…now THAT is history rhyming.

Us too, Hobbes. Us too. ...more

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Mar 23, 2015 cool breeze rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction

This is a non-fiction history that is livelier than most historical fiction and more gripping than most thrillers or adventure novels. Fans of Rudyard Kipling’s Kim and George MacDonald Fraser’s Flashman series should love this book.

This type of book benefits from frequent consultation of maps and thankfully it provides six good ones which identify virtually every location in the text. There is also a good collection of illustrations.

The book was written in 1990, a particularly opportune window ...more

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May 04, 2013 Arun Ellis rated it it was amazing

I really did enjoy this book, if you like Imperial history then this is one for you.

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Dec 18, 2018 Dave rated it liked it

Shelves: history, audio, read-in-2018

Struggling to rate this one. I picked it up out of an intense interest in Central Asia. I wanted to understand the context for today's events and struggles.

So, if I had been reading this in 1990 (when the latest edition was published), perhaps this would have done the trick. But sometime between 1990 and now, a history wholly told as a swashbuckling tale of Kipling-esque white male imperial intrigue and daring stopped feeling like reliable history.

I'm left with so many basic questions, and I'm ...more

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