Reviews
“For other people, the imperious and imperial George Nathaniel Curzon said, Afghanistan, Turkestan, Persia and the other names of Central Asia might breathe only a sense of remoteness and "moribund romance"; but "to me, I confess, they are pieces on a chessboard upon which is being played out a game for dominion of the world." So they were, when the great British proconsul wrote that in 1892; so they still are, and Karl E. Meyer's new book is not only readable and well informed but timely to an almost painful degree...
As we used to say on the Northwest Frontier, this book is a rattling good yarn, and if I say that it has an old-fashioned flavor, I don't mean that as dispraise. There are many insights, and some splendid vignettes. Maybe the best is from that Iranian coup of 1953, which was not long after " Guys and Dolls" opened on Broadway. While the turmoil erupted in the streets of Tehran outside, Kermit Roosevelt of the C.I.A., one of the chief conspirators, sat tight indoors playing "Luck Be a Lady Tonight" over and again on his phonograph. Although it doesn't deal with Iraq as such, the topical implications of the book scarcely need dwelling on, and Sky Masterson's song might be a motto for the new rulers of Mesopotamia. They may yet need all the luck they can get.”
-- Geoffrey Wheatcroft, The New York Times
“Karl E. Meyer reads voraciously, travels to rough places and worries that Americans lack not just knowledge of the world but curiosity, as well... He sees his vocation as educating nonexperts, and this is his ninth book, synthesizing "basic information in a readable manner" with captivating personal profiles: a Russian viceroy to the Caucasus, Mikhail Vorontsov; the "frontier Gandhi," Abdul Ghaffar Khan; the CIA's Kermit (Kim) Roosevelt, a grandson of Teddy and a Kipling devotee.
The page-turning chapter on Afghanistan is sharply focused and analytically outstanding. Then comes one mostly on Georgia, once a rich Soviet republic and now beyond even shambles, despite ranking fourth in 1990s U.S. foreign aid. The tour concludes with a hectic scamper through the five Central Asian "Stans," whose "relative calm" amid their ecological ruin and despotism is a bright spot. Missing are India and Turkey, two democracies, regional powers and offspring of differing empires, British versus Ottoman, a notable contrast here unexamined ... Meyer recognizes a war-on-terrorism imperative to engage friendly dictatorships in strategic locations, but he urges the United States somehow not to become accessory to their abuses of human rights and public treasuries. Instead, he advises Washington to promote federalism, open borders and civic institutions abroad. "Like it or not, Washington is the seat of an empire," he asserts. ...
As a 21st-century American liberal, Meyer recalls the 18th-century English conservative Edmund Burke, who argued that empire had corrupted England but still refused to relinquish the faith that empire should and could be done better. Yet history Meyer's favored educational tool has showed otherwise, though you would never know given today's imperial amnesia.”
-- Stephen Kotkin, The International Herald Tribune
“Deserves to be read in the White House...Scholarly and eloquently told... The stories of empire in the Asian heartland have an edge of urgency... With a sense of easy mastery, he gazes broadly at the longest view, then zooms in to inspect the finest detail of a telling fact.”
--David A. Shipler, The Los Angeles Times
“As Meyer puts it, the book is meant to provide "basic information in a readable manner for an audience of educated non-experts."
Meyer embarks on an ambitious project to introduce the reader to Russia, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, the Caucasus and Central Asia, the history of their colonization and the way that history has shaped present political realities and attitudes toward the new imperial power: the United States... But The Dust of Empire is more than just an introduction of a faraway and exotic continent. It's a cautionary tale of shipwrecked imperial ambitions and a desperate plea not to continue along the same path... The Dust of Empire fulfills its promise of providing "basic information in a readable manner." . . It's a "must read" for any non-expert interested in the region and current affairs, as it provides the context of the U.S. war on terrorism and a frank look at challenges of finding allies in the dust of Russian and British empires.”
--Levon Sevunts, The Gazette (Montreal, Quebec)
“In this impressive historical guide, Meyer deftly takes the reader through Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and parts of Central Asia unfamiliar to most Canadians. Throughout the journey, Meyer shows how imperialism often shaped, for the worse, the subject peoples and their societies... His erudite and learned book is one whose message deserves our urgent attention. What's more, it makes for compelling reading.”
--Emran Quereshi, The Globe and Mail (Canada)
“The Dust of Empire serves as an introduction to the vast Eurasian heartland. There is a particularly good chapter on Pakistan, which dwells in detail on the breakup of the subcontinent... The core of the book is Mr. Meyer's chapters on the Caucasus and the five Central Asian -stans that became independent after the sudden collapse [as George Kennan predicted in his long-ago Foreign Affairs article] of the Soviet Union. The Caucasus is vividly described as a Babel of languages, ethnic groups and hatred that make the old Yugoslavia seem like Asbury Park on a Sunday afternoon...
The balance of this survey is devoted to Central Asia, once obscure and thus romantic. The five ex-Soviet republics, however, are as different as they are alike and present varying challenges to American policymakers ...And on it goes. Out of this unlikely material, the United States is hoping some of these Central Asian states will be allies in our war against terrorism. Karl Meyer rightly warns us of the consequences of good intentions.”
---Roger Fontaine, Washington Times
“Meyer combines scholarly expertise with journalistic detail in a rich account relaying formative events through extensive research and poignant personal anecdotes. Skillfully weaving in his perceptive reflections on American imperialism, Meyer strongly argues, "Washington is the seat of an empire, if of a special kind," which must cultivate substantive relationships rather than shortsighted alliances if it hopes to win the war on terror... Meyer intends to "sharpen" the reader's appetite, and interested readers will take the book for what it is-a compelling yet cursory introduction to a fascinating region-and continue to build a deeper understanding of the region.”
--Publishers Weekly
“Since the late nineteenth century, geopolitical strategists have emphasized the value of controlling the "world island" of Eurasia; the key to mastery of that island is control, directly or indirectly, of the Central Asian heartland that stretches from the Causasus to the Chinese border. Meyer, the editor of World Policy Journal, traces the various struggles by outside powers to control this vital region, illuminating the culture and history of the various peoples that have invaded, conquered, and settled in these diverse lands. His analysis of the efforts of Russia first to resist the onslaught of central Asian nomads and then to subdue and pacify them is both astute and essential to understanding the complex relationships that have followed the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The description of the frustrations and humiliations that sowed the seeds of the Islamic revolution in Iran should be essential reading for those who continue to find Iranian hostility to outsiders baffling. A timely analysis of an area likely to be the focus of American concerns for a long time.”
--Jay Freeman, Booklist"Meyer adroitly shows how great power rivalry, and especially cold War politics, shaped such events as the creation of Pakistan, american-Iranian relations, and the soviet invasion of Afghanistan."
--Library Journal
"This is a book well worth reading. Karl E Meyer, an older generat ion scholar, is a master of the historical equivalent of the comic one-liner. He has the capacity to explain or divulge or remind in the space of a dozen or so well crafted words. Of 250 pages and costing a mere $26 in hardback the volume is excellent value, providing a convincing set of explanations of the dynamics of nations and peoples and power and violence. All this is done with balance, humility, wisdom and the perfect illustrative quote. Thankfully, too, he loves to rediscover lost writers, travelers, sages and heroes, all deserving of remembrance. In terms of sources, he painstakingly dredges the whole range of them open to the traditional historian while acknowledging how the internet has brought to professional and public attention many references that might otherwise not be available to interested readers and researchers. ..
The book is especially strong when discussing the last couple of centuries of Western (including Russian) imperialism. Here the importance is his underlying and unspoken attack on post-modernism, insisting on seeking explanation (though not prediction) from history. The fate of former hegemons, particularly of Britain, is instructive, not in terms of exact predictions, but in terms of indications of what the future may be composed of in international relations. The fate of the hegemon is to be unpopular. Meyer draws the parallel of Britain and its worldwide unpopularity over its conduct in the Boer War and the current antagonism toward the USA worldwide, especially in “liberated” Iraq. Replace oil with gold and diamonds and the two cases become even more similar.
In his Chapter on Afghanistan he reminds the reader just how a country that may appear to many as distant and irrelevant has been of crucial importance to the West for two hundred years. Moreover he shows how the Afghans have never been defeated by a foreign power, how their leaders have been led by two hundred years of imperial power play to depend on duplicity for their survival, and how the British, unable to defeat the Pashtuns, recruited them into their Imperial armies. And he does his level best to match Gandhi with the Pashtun leader of tens of thousands of unsung non-violent Muslims, Ghaffar Khan.
Meyer’s concluding concluding remark on Afghanistan in all humility is: “It is obvious that America’s encounter with the Pushtuns, the remarkable people living on both sides of the Afghan frontier, has barely begun.”
The same may be said of all the latest Imperial endeavours of this century’s hegemon. In this respect Meyer identifies a crucial summary of the British experience in India written by John Strachey the British writer and politician and Labourite ideologue who wrote that the British Empire in India “was both iniquitous and beneficent; it was founded by violence, treachery and insatiable avarice, but also by incomparable daring and sustained resolution: it united India; it partitioned India; it industrialized India; it stunted India; it served India; it ravaged India; it created modern India; it was selfless and selfish, ruinous and constructive, glorious and monstrous.” (John Strachey, End of Empire, Random House, 1960). Will this be said of the USA and its Empire? If so, the best that the USA can hope for is a love-hate relationship. One hopes fervently for more love than hate...
--Peace and Conflict Monitor
Read the complete review at: http://www.monitor.upeace.org/archive.cfm?id_article=84