A fascinating bit of imperial history, The Man Who Would Be King traces the true story of Josiah Harlan, a Quaker from Pennsylvania, who in the 1820s journeyed to British India to make his fortune as a military surgeon. Harlan decided he wanted more, and became a self-made player in the Great Game, using his natural talents and self-taught skills in medicine, diplomacy, and warfare, to serve the last great Oriental potentates (Shah Shujah al-Moolk, Amir Dost Mohammed Khan, Maharaja Ranjit Singh) and make his fortune.

Harlan is a fascinating character: a man of great energy and ambition who climbs to power remarkably quickly, in an environment where making a mistake in your choice of friends or words can lead to painful death. Macintyre also does a great job depicting the richness of the Afghan courts and their colorful life, as contrasted against the harsh lives of the peasants. In a period when Europe and the US are spinning up an industrial revolution and basics of the modern state, the Afghans as consumed in politics and feuds from an early time; an empire collapsed into warring microstates. Harlan does become King, for barely a few weeks, climbing the ladder of Oriental nobility to rule a small valley on a putative expedition against Uzbek slavers. In the end, Harlan returned to the US, wrote a poorly received book on the British, and died in relative obscurity, but he lived a life that was heroic.

There are parts that I wish were a little clearer, on the geography and politics of the era, but overall this is a fun and colorful examination of strange and forgotten era.