Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the War Against the Taliban

For over 2,500 years, the forbidding territory of Afghanistan has served as a vital crossroads for armies and has witnessed history-shaping clashes between civilizations: Greek, Arab, Mongol, and Tartar, and, in more recent times, British, Russian, and American. When U.S. troops entered Afghanistan in the weeks following September 11, 2001, they overthrew the Afghan Taliban regime and sent the terrorists it harbored on the run. But America's initial easy victory is in sharp contrast to the difficulties it faces today in confronting the Taliban resurgence.

Originally published in 2002, Stephen Tanner's Afghanistan has now been completely updated to include the crucial turn of events since America first entered the country.

• Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History (Princeton Studies in Muslim Politics)
• Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia, Second Edition
• Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
• Games without Rules: The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan
• Afghanistan: A History from 1260 to the Present
• Descent into Chaos: The U.S. and the Disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia
• The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia (Kodansha Globe)
• Massoud: An Intimate Portrait of the Legendary Afghan Leader
• In the Graveyard of Empires: America's War in Afghanistan
• The Bear Went Over the Mountain: Soviet Combat Tactics in Afghanistan