Tournament of Shadows; The Great Game and the Race for Em[ire in Central Asia

Anita Karl and James Kemp (Endpaper map) and Barba Washington DC: Counterpoint [A Cornelia and Michael Bessie Book], 1999. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. xxv, [1], 646 pages. Endpaper map. Author's Note. Chronology. Illustrations. Maps. Notes and Sources. Index. DJ has slight edgewear and soiling. Karl E. Meyer (May 22, 1928 – December 22, 2019) was an American-based journalist. He received his MPA (Master of Public Affairs) from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. After being awarded a Proctor Fellowship, he earned a Ph.D. (in politics), also from Princeton University. In 1979, he joined The New York Times as the senior writer for foreign affairs, a position he held until his retirement in 1998. He served as judge for the Peabodys, the Pulitzer Prize, and the Arnold Toynbee History Prize. He was also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Century Association. Brysac was born in Denver, Colorado, and graduated from Barnard College, Columbia University. While at Barnard, she attended the Juilliard School and danced as a member of the José Limón and Merce Cunningham Companies. After her graduation, she also appeared with the Paul Taylor Dance Company in Europe and with the New York City Opera ballet. In 1999, she was the co-author with her husband, Karl E. Meyer, of Tournament of Shadows: the Great Game and the Race for Empire in Central Asia. It was chosen as a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times and was a finalist for the Lionel Gelber Prize for "the world's best non-fiction book in English that seeks to deepen public debate on significant global issues." It was republished with a new introduction in 2006 by Basic Books. From a Foreign Affairs review by L. Carl Brown May/June 2000: A tour de force. On one level are stories of the soldiers, scholars, and spies who ventured during the last two centuries into the rugged mountainous territory, from Iran to Tibet, that made up the nebulous border between the Russian and British empires. They were serving either Britain or Russia -- or were believed to be. Later, a few Americans and Germans joined in, combining adventurous trekking with national interest. All the accounts, diligently documented, evoke a Kiplingesque derring-do. At another level, these stories assess the strategies and characteristics of empires: the "forward school" bent on pushing imperial boundaries ever outward, the phobia over what the imperial enemy is up to, and the reluctance to abandon territory once gained. Especially well presented are the ill-fated British interventions in Afghanistan that presaged the later Soviet experience. The authors give the last word to a retired great-game player: it was just a game "with scores, but no substantive prizes." From a Publishers Weekly article: Equal parts geopolitical intrigue and quest for Shangri-la, the Great Game was the imperialist duel for influence in Central Asia that occupied the best and the brightest of the Russian and British empires through the entire 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. In this detailed narrative from Meyer and Brysac, the story of the Great Game is told from the perspective of the explorers, soldiers and archeologists (many of whom frequently doubled as spies) who planted their nations' flags in the steppes and mountain passes of Afghanistan, Turkestan and Tibet. Among the colorful characters portrayed are William Moorcroft, the East India Company stable master who trekked to fabled Bokhara to purchase horses for the British cavalry, and SS officer Ernst Schafer, who led a German expedition to Tibet in search of a lost Aryan homeland. Notably missing is the viewpoint of the native inhabitants, though Meyer and Brysac do express admiration for the "pundits," the Indian explorers immortalized in Kipling's imperialist epic, Kim, who surveyed regions where Europeans feared to tread. A passing familiarity with Central Asian history would serve readers well, but even those who don't know a Gurkha from a yurt will get the gist. An impressive feat of historical synthesis that draws on sources ranging from published biographies to secret memos buried in the archives of the East India Company, this rousing history is written with some of the lan exhibited by the most stylish participants in the Great Game itself. Condition: Very good / Very good.

Keywords: William Moorcroft, East India Company, Bokhara, Ernst Schafer, Tibet, Gurkha, Dalai Lama, Sven Hedin, John Keltie, Edward Lytton, Theodore Roosevelt, Royal Geographical Society, Francis Younghusband

ISBN: 1582430284

[Book #85059]

Price: $50.00

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