Modernizing Afghanistan - How 80 Years of Interventions Impoverished a Frugal Society (Paperback)

From Marco Polo's discovery of lapis lazuli gemstones in 1260 through emeralds that financed Masood's war against the Taliban in the 1990s, the wealth of the country has always been used to finance war both by foreigners and their proxies.

Modernist interventions-whether politico-military, economic or cultural-into Afghanistan since 1919 have failed in every way. On their own terms, they have not reconstructed Afghanistan in the image of the West. Afghanistan remains overwhelmingly a rural, tribal -peasant-nomadic, deeply Muslim society. More importantly, these interventions, writes Herold in a stirring book, have created modern poverty in urban areas, famines in rural ones, and profoundly upset the delicate balance between people and nature/environment constructed over millenia.