Return of a King

Dalrymple's history of the First Anglo-Afghan War — the catastrophic British invasion and retreat of 1839-1842 — told from both British and Afghan perspectives using Afghan sources.

The first history of the First Afghan War to use Afghan primary sources: Dalrymple translated Afghan chronicles and poetry to give the Afghan perspective. The disaster of 1842: the British retreating army of 4,500 soldiers and 12,000 camp followers was virtually annihilated in the Khyber Pass — one of the most catastrophic military defeats in British imperial history. The parallels with the 2001-2021 Afghan War: Dalrymple draws them explicitly.