The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia

As in Like Hidden Fire (reviewed in MEQ, March 1995), his exemplary account of German and Ottoman cooperation against the British Empire during World War I, Hopkirk here tells the tale of the nineteenth-century Russian-British face-off in Asia. Again, wherever possible, Hopkirk tells his story "through the individuals, on either side, who took part in the great imperial struggle, rather than through historical forces or geopolitics." This approach has the advantage of bringing to light many remarkable individuals obscured by the passage of years; it also has the disadvantage of leaving the reader somewhat uncomprehending about the deeper causes or consequences of the action-packed pages he's read.

The Great Game rightly conjures up romantic visions of valor and deceit, for this century-long contest did inspire more than its share of remarkable deeds; at the same time, of course, it was a bloody, unforgiving confrontation with its quota of victims and even of massacres (most notably, the British at Afghan hands in 1842). Perhaps most memorable about the Game is its unending oddities and unexpected twists. For example, Lt. Richmond Shakespear in 1840 convinced the khan of Khiva to release the many Russian slaves toiling away in Khiva, not out of compassion for the captured Russians but to prevent Moscow from finding a pretext to invade Khiva. The tsar had to pretend delight with this operation; in private, however, he was furious at the gambit. The Great Game really does live up to its reputation.

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