I feel a little bad making comments about Philbrick and his book when I haven’t read it. I’ve ordered it from Amazon, and I’ll be reading it and offering more substantial comments sometime in the next few weeks.

I have to say, I’ve read Dalrymple’s book White Mughals and I really enjoyed the heck out of it. But I read it as someone who has little or no familiarity with South Asian history, so it is hard for me to judge it on its merits.

But I’ll add, I also know that academic historians are working on similar questions, and that I’m aware their work is in a sense more sophisticated than Dalrymple’s (I’m thinking of Margot Finn, but I’m sure there are others).