Summary of Ben Macintyre's The Man Who Would Be King

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 Josiah Harlan’s hunt for a crown began with a letter. He had been sent to China by his brothers in Chester County, Pennsylvania, to make a fortune, but he ended up becoming an Oriental potentate with his own army.
#2 Josiah Harlan was a young American in a young America, and he was impatient, ambitious, and utterly convinced of his own abilities. He grew up in the America of Thomas Jefferson, a place of infinite space and possibility.
#3 Josiah’s wanderlust and interest in medicine can be traced to his brother Richard, who had entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1816. He had returned from a voyage to Calcutta as a surgeon of an East India ship in 1820, and brought back tales of his voyage and of the sights and sounds of India.
#4 Harlan’s journey to the East in 1821 was filled with adventure and romance. He fell in love with a woman named Eliza Swaim, but when he returned home in 1822, she had already married someone else.

Sujets

• Love
• Love (disambiguation)
• Asia
• Central Asia
• Sexualité
• sexualité
• Sexualité

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 23 mars 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781669358190
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Ben Macintyre's The Man Who Would Be King
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11 Insights from Chapter 12 Insights from Chapter 13 Insights from Chapter 14 Insights from Chapter 15 Insights from Chapter 16
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Josiah Harlan’s hunt for a crown began with a letter. He had been sent to China by his brothers in Chester County, Pennsylvania, to make a fortune, but he ended up becoming an Oriental potentate with his own army.

#2

Josiah Harlan was a young American in a young America, and he was impatient, ambitious, and utterly convinced of his own abilities. He grew up in the America of Thomas Jefferson, a place of infinite space and possibility.

#3

Josiah’s wanderlust and interest in medicine can be traced to his brother Richard, who had entered the medical department of the University of Pennsylvania in 1816. He had returned from a voyage to Calcutta as a surgeon of an East India ship in 1820, and brought back tales of his voyage and of the sights and sounds of India.

#4

Harlan’s journey to the East in 1821 was filled with adventure and romance. He fell in love with a woman named Eliza Swaim, but when he returned home in 1822, she had already married someone else.

#5

Harlan embraced his loneliness in Calcutta. He had reached out and grasped a thorn, and he would never love the same way again. He was now determined never to return home.

#6

Harlan became a surgeon for the East India Company, and was transferred to the Bengal Artillery in 1824. The British defeated a sixty thousand strong force outside Rangoon, but the army was suffering from numerous casualties, mostly through disease.

#7

In 1826, the British fought their First Anglo-Burmese War and won. They extended their frontier and killed 15,000 troops, but thousands more were injured or debilitated by tropical disease.

#8

In 1815, Harlan passed the time in Karnal training his puppy, reading, and treating the soldiers suffering from dysentery. He absorbed the descriptions of the Afghan people in Elphinstone’s book, which described them as loyal, brave, and hardworking.

#9

Harlan was growing impatient with service in the East India Company, and he was becoming increasingly unwilling to follow the orders of pimply young Englishmen. He was also extremely free with his opinions, which did not endear him to his superiors.

#10

Harlan’s worldview reflected this outward, embracing impetus. The American empire was there to be discovered, scientifically explored, and exploited. The inhabitants of those territories did not wish to be absorbed into a greater America, but that was immaterial.

#11

When Harlan left the plains, he made his way to Simla, the hill station in the north where British officialdom was on retreat from the summer heat. He was allowed to stay because he was a civilian. He then headed toward Ludhiana, the last British garrison town in northwest India.

#12

In 1826, Harlan went to visit the British agent in charge of Ludhiana, Claude Martine Wade, to ask for permission to cross the Sutlej River and enter the Punjab. The Englishman was an expert diplomatist who had a cynical attitude toward power.

#13

Harlan’s plan was to join the maharaja’s entourage and rise to fame and fortune, while documenting the plants and flowers of the Punjab. But the maharaja was suspicious of feringhees, as white foreigners were called.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

The American was impressed by the display of dignity and authority of the Afghan king, who never compromised his royal dignity. He was a prisoner of the maharaja of Ranjit Singh, who was trying to extract his remaining treasure.

#2

Shah Shujah al-Moolk, the king of Afghanistan who was exiled by the British, was a strange, violent, but strangely romantic figure. He had ruled for just six years, but he was convinced he would one day return in triumph to Kabul.

#3

Harlan was fascinated by the exiled king, and wanted to help him regain his throne. He sent a secret message to Shujah’s chief counselor, outlining a general proposition affecting the royal prospects of restoration.

#4

The American visitor was greeted by Mullah Shakur, Shujah’s vizier, who led him into the ex-king’s domain. It was a vast and perfectly maintained Oriental garden.

#5

Harlan made a secret trip to Kabul to meet with the exiled king, Shujah al-Moolk. He offered to help raise an army to take back the throne.

#6

Harlan Shujah, an American adventurer, proposed to restore Shujah’s crown by recruiting a fifth column in Kabul and leading an invasion of Afghanistan. In exchange, he wanted to rule as the king’s vizier.

#7

Harlan began recruiting an army under the American flag, without any authority to do so. He was soon joined by a scarred old warrior-holy man named Mullah Shakur, who advised him to begin military preparations and await word from Shujah on the timing of his quest.

#8

The last white man to reach Kabul was William Moorcroft, an English veterinary surgeon employed by the Company. He had become convinced that in the wilds of Tartary, beyond the fabled Hindu Kush, were horses of such strength and beauty that they would transform the bloodstock of the Company’s cavalry.

#9

John Palmer, a friend of the horse vet, was determined to get to the truth. He obtained information from official documents that Harlan had been sent to find out what had happened to Moorcroft and, if possible, to retrieve his plundered property.

#10

Harlan assembled a band of about a hundred men, and he had recruited a jemadar, or native officer, in command of the sepoys. He had not yet found a trusty lieutenant, a native who knew the country and could maintain discipline.

#11

Harlan was accompanied by a group of mercenaries, a bag of gold, and two European companions. He was extremely contented. Two days before the army was due to depart, a most peculiar figure appeared outside Harlan’s tent and demanded an audience.