Reviewed by  TCA Ranghavan  <br/><br/>
Long shadows of imperial retreat  

 - Biblio: A Review of Books  
 - 30(7-8), Jul-Sep, 2025: p.6-7 
<br/><br/> Shattered Lands: Five partitions and the making of modern Asia. by Sam Dalrymple, Fourth Estate Harper Collins publishers India, 2025, 520 pp. Rs.799 (HB). ISBN 978-936989-462-8. <br/><br/><br/><br/>The history Dalrymple so engagingly rates is in fact one of declination and imperial retreat and the generically violence that often accompanied it. Parties, especially the rebalances are a vital subset of this history. Since the 1970s we have gained a better understanding of such imperial or quasi imperial retreats the US from Vietnam, the Soviets from Afghanistan, the US again from Iraq and Afghanistan. –Reproduced