RAWLINSON, Sir Henry. England and Russia in the East. A Series of Papers on the Political and Geographical Condition of Central Asia. London: John Murray. 1875.
8vo. Original green cloth, spine lettered in gilt, ornamented in blind; pp. xvi, 393, [2, advertisements], 20 (publisher's catalogue, dated February, 1875), large folding lithographic map in colours at rear; front fly-leaf with slightly frayed outer margin, offsetting from endpapers to beginning and end, occasional spotting, map a little spotted and with repaired marginal tear; a good copy.
First edition. An assessment of the Russian-British rivalry over Central Asia, written by a hawkish old hand of the Great Game. After having been political agent in Afghanistan in 1842, Rawlinson (1810-1895) became one of the leading Assyriologists, deciphering cuneiform script, before, as president of the Royal Geographical Society, turning towards geopolitics, and promoting British Forward Policy.
SKU: 2124684