AnyBook4Less.com	Find the Best Price on the Web Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Home  |  Store List  |  FAQ  |  Contact Us  |
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money Keyword AuthorISBN

Title: Kashmir in the Crossfire by Victoria Schofield ISBN: 1-86064-036-2 Publisher: I.B. Tauris Pub. Date: September, 1996 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $39.50

Your Country USA Canada United Kingdom Australia Austria Belgium France Germany Italy Netherlands Switzerland Currency AutoUSD CAD GBP EUR AUD CHF Delivery Only cheapest delivery All delivery options Include Used Books Are you a club member of: Barnes and Noble Books A Million Chapters.Indigo.ca

Average Customer Rating: 3.5 (2 reviews)

Rating: 2
Summary: Useful but not objective
Comment: This is a book on Kashmir by a friend of Benazir Bhutto, thediscredited and corrupt former prime minister of Pakistan. Althoughthe book is an improvement on many others on the subject by its consideration of the ethnic and linguistic complexities of the region, it suffers from its over-reliance on the leftist viewpoint... But in spite of its obvious failings the book will be useful to many readers who wish to get started on the subject.

We are waiting to see if her new book on Kashmir will be more insightful.

Rating: 5
Summary: The best narrative history of Kashmir published to date
Comment: Victoria Schofield has managed to write an extraordinary book. Out of some 1,400 books on Kashmir 'Kashmir in the Crossfire' is an even-handed, carefully researched work of history that traces the political development of Kashmir right up to 1995. There's little about Victoria Schofield inside, but a great deal about Kashmir and Kashmiris. Instead of writing about Kashmir, Schofield weaves in a range of contemporary interviews and direct quotes from existing literature, allowing Kashmir to speak for itself.

You might decide that one account is more accurate than another, but it is a tribute to Schofield's capacity as an historian to offer different views without feeling obliged to elevate or demolish them.

Inevitably, books on Kashmir attract denunciations on-line for being either pro- or anti- established perspectives of the current conflict over the state. Let's hope that readers and reviewers alike will hold back their judgement until reading it fully and asking themselves some of the following questions.

Is this book littered with error? (No.) Does Schofield pitch a particular answer to the Kashmir problem? (No, although she acknowledges that Kashmiris should play a part if it is to be resolved in a meaningful fashion.) Is Schofield an India or Pakistan 'basher'? (Not at all.) And finally, is Schofield guily of a rose-tinted view of Kashmir often held by other Western writers on the subject? (No - unlike most of her counterparts, this book exposes the part that many Kashmiris themselves have played in making contemporary Kashmir the unhappy place that it is.)

If you buy one book on Kashmir, let it be this one. In 2000 a shorter, updated version was published under the title 'Kashmir in Conflict'. Equally excellent, this only pips it because it offers a deeper view of early Kashmir history.