Table Of ContentGAME
THE GREAT
!
KJhe Strugglejor 'Umpire in Central CAsia
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"PETER HOPKIRK ISTRULY
THE LAUREATE OF THE GREAT CAME. -JAN MORRIS
Universal praise for Peter Hopkirk and The Great Game
"Thisbookisrequired readingforthoseconcernedwiththeunsettling
condition in Central Asia and the Caucasus."
—
John Toland, author ofAdolfHitler
"Tracing the arc of conflict and intrigue across 'the Roof of the
World,' Hopkirk suppliesplentyofintelligible reasons why it seemed
reasonable to Europeans to 'try and hustle the East' In a series of
thrillingchapterswhichwilldelighttheaficionadoofBuchan, Kipling
and George MacDonald Fraser(and whoissodull astobeimmuneto
that trio), Hopkirk brings us as varied a gallery of characters as could
bedesired Lookatthemaptodayandyouwillseethatinnumerable
pressing matters, from the status of Tibet to the continued Russian
occupation of some Japanese home islands, date from the opening
moves in the Great Game The popularity of pseudo-strategic
twentieth-century terminology about everywhere being 'a dagger
pointedattheheartofeverywhereelsewasuniquelyappropriatetothe
great Central Asian superpower jostle, where daggers bristled at
random in all directions. But the bugles sounded in vain. Even as I
write, 'the East' is reassertingitstraditional, devoutshapeand reckon-
ing the presence oiferinghee (infidel foreigners) as a mere evanescent
episode in its long, traditional resistance/'
—
Christopher Hitchens, Washington Post Book World
"The Great Game is the grandfather of all spy stories. Forget about
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modern espionage yarns; this is much more exciting and its all for
real."
—Phillip Knightley, author of TheMasterSpy
"At first this big book looks like a fairly standard military/diplomatic
history: an account of the nineteenth-century struggle between
Englandand Russiafordominancein CentralAsia Buttheauthor,
a former London Times reporter with extensive experience in the
Mideast and Asia, has notjust written an updated glorification of the
British Empire. He has looked into the Russian historical record
extensively, and he tells his story with a chivalrous respect for the
Russianpointofview. Welearnhowthegreatpushsouthwardwasthe
Russian version of Manifest Destiny, and we can sense that Leonid
ataSUTTBR STREET
•AtfFJtANCISCO, CA Him
Brezhnev'sarrogantand criminalinvasion ofan unstableAfghanistan
in 1979wasnothingnew Hopkirkhasagiftforvividwritingthatis
excitingwithoutbeingoverblown. HisaccountoftheAfghan uprising
in 1841 is especially gripping and horrifying As Hopkirk points
out,afterthebreakupoftheSovietUniontheCentralAsianpeoplesare
once again independent. Today's Great Powers have a second chance
—
to behave in a civilized way there and elsewhere."
—James North, New York Newsday
"Peter Hopkirk, ajournalist in a previous incarnation, writes history
asifitwereanadventurestory (wellisn'tit?), and in hislatestbook, he
is in great form."
—
Ray Alan, TheNewLeader
"What in the hands of a lesser writer could have been a collection of
—
obscurefacts, figures and personalities is here transformed thanks to
—
vibrantwritingand remarkableorganization i—ntoarivetingdramaof
nineteenth-century imperialistic power-politics Hopkirk packs his
narrativewithenoughdeath, double-dealing, andderring-dotokeepa
TV miniseries surging along for months Hopkirk's accounts of
incursionsintosuch exoticlocales as Samarkand, Bokhara, and Lhasa
are among the most exciting in his fast-paced work He maintains
thesuspensewithassurance,andalsoisevenhandedinhistreatmentof
the duplicity that marks the activities not only of the area's Muslim
natives but of the Russians and English as well Working on a
sprawlingcanvascrammedwithincidentssetincouncilchambersand
Himalayan mountain passes and with a cast that includes Queen
Victoria, tsars, trigger-happy militarists, fanatical khans, sepoys, and
Sherpas, Hopkirk organizes his material with a master's touch. The
result is historical writing of ext—raordinary power and readability."
Kirkus Reviews (in a starred review)
"Nobody else alive could handle this terrific subject with such a
—
combination of skill, knowledge, enthusiasm and insight Peter
Hopkirk is truly the Laureate of the Great Game."
—
Jan Morris
Hfc7
THE GREAT GAME
Other books by theauthor
Foreign Devils on the Silk Road
Trespassers on the Roof of the World
Setting the East Ablaze
Like Hidden Fire
THE
GAME
GREAT
The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia
PETER HOPKIRK
'Now I shall go far and far
into the North, playing the
Great Game...'
Rudyard Kipling, Kim, 1901
Kodansha International
New York Tokyo London
• •
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KodanshaAmerica, Inc.,
114 Fifth Avenue, NewYork, NewYork 10011, U.S.A.
Kodansha International Ltd.
17-14Otowa 1-chome, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112,Japan
Published in 1994by KodanshaAmerica, Inc.
Thisisa Kodansha Globebook.
Firstpublished in Great Britain in 1990 as
The Great Game: OnSecretServiceinHighAsia
byJohn Murray (Publishers) Ltd.
Copyright © 1990, 1992 by Peter Hopkirk.
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United StatesofAmerica
97 98 99 00 Q/FF 10 9 8 7 6 5
LibraryofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hopkirk, Peter.
Thegreatgame : the struggleforempirein central Asia/ Peter
Hopkirk.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographic references (p. 527-542) and index.
ISBN 1-56836-022-3
—
1. Asia, Central Politicsand Government. 2. Asia, Central
— — —
Relations Soviet Union. 3. Soviet Union Relations Asia,
— —
Britain Relations Asia, Central. I. Title.
DS329.4.H67 1992
320.958—dc20 92-16925
CIP
