[custom_adv] Fractured by internal conflict and foreign intervention for centuries, Afghanistan made several tentative steps toward modernization in the mid-20th century. [custom_adv] In the 1950s and 1960s, some of the biggest strides were made toward a more liberal and westernized lifestyle, while trying to maintain a respect for more conservative factions. [custom_adv] Though officially a neutral nation, Afghanistan was courted and influenced by the U.S. and Soviet Union during the Cold War, accepting Soviet machinery and weapons, and U.S. financial aid. [custom_adv] This time was a brief, relatively peaceful era, when modern buildings were constructed in Kabul alongside older traditional mud structures, when burqas became optional for a time, and the country appeared to be on a path toward a more open, prosperous society. [custom_adv] Progress was halted in the 1970s, as a series of bloody coups, invasions, and civil wars began, continuing to this day, reversing almost all of the steps toward modernization taken in the 50s and 60s. [custom_adv] Keep in mind, when looking at these images, that the average life expectancy for Afghans born in 1960 was 31, so the vast majority of those pictured have likely passed on since. [custom_adv] In May 1960, the historian Arnold J. Toynbee left Kandahar and drove ninety miles on freshly paved roads to Lashkar Gah, a modern planned city known locally as the New York of Afghanistan. [custom_adv] At the confluence of the Helmand and Arghandab rivers, close against the ancient ruins of Qala Bist, Lashkar Gah's eight thousand residents lived in suburban-style tract homes surrounded by broad lawns. [custom_adv] The city boasted an alabaster mosque, one of the country's best hospitals, Afghanistan's only coeducational high school, and the headquarters of the Helmand Valley Authority, a multipurpose dam project funded by the United States. [custom_adv] This unexpected proliferation of modernity led Toynbee to reflect on the warning of Sophocles: “the craft of his engines surpasseth his dreams.” In the area around Kandahar, traditional Afghanistan had vanished. [custom_adv] The city boasted an alabaster mosque, one of the country's best hospitals, Afghanistan's only coeducational high school, and the headquarters of the Helmand Valley Authority, a multipurpose dam project funded by the United States. [custom_adv] This unexpected proliferation of modernity led Toynbee to reflect on the warning of Sophocles: “the craft of his engines surpasseth his dreams.” In the area around Kandahar, traditional Afghanistan had vanished. [custom_adv] The city boasted an alabaster mosque, one of the country's best hospitals, Afghanistan's only coeducational high school, and the headquarters of the Helmand Valley Authority, a multipurpose dam project funded by the United States. [custom_adv] This unexpected proliferation of modernity led Toynbee to reflect on the warning of Sophocles: “the craft of his engines surpasseth his dreams.” In the area around Kandahar, traditional Afghanistan had vanished. [custom_adv] The city boasted an alabaster mosque, one of the country's best hospitals, Afghanistan's only coeducational high school, and the headquarters of the Helmand Valley Authority, a multipurpose dam project funded by the United States. [custom_adv] This unexpected proliferation of modernity led Toynbee to reflect on the warning of Sophocles: “the craft of his engines surpasseth his dreams.” In the area around Kandahar, traditional Afghanistan had vanished. [custom_adv] The city boasted an alabaster mosque, one of the country's best hospitals, Afghanistan's only coeducational high school, and the headquarters of the Helmand Valley Authority, a multipurpose dam project funded by the United States. [custom_adv] This unexpected proliferation of modernity led Toynbee to reflect on the warning of Sophocles: “the craft of his engines surpasseth his dreams.” In the area around Kandahar, traditional Afghanistan had vanished. [custom_adv] The city boasted an alabaster mosque, one of the country's best hospitals, Afghanistan's only coeducational high school, and the headquarters of the Helmand Valley Authority, a multipurpose dam project funded by the United States. [custom_adv] This unexpected proliferation of modernity led Toynbee to reflect on the warning of Sophocles: “the craft of his engines surpasseth his dreams.” In the area around Kandahar, traditional Afghanistan had vanished. [custom_adv] The city boasted an alabaster mosque, one of the country's best hospitals, Afghanistan's only coeducational high school, and the headquarters of the Helmand Valley Authority, a multipurpose dam project funded by the United States. [custom_adv] The city boasted an alabaster mosque, one of the country's best hospitals, Afghanistan's only coeducational high school, and the headquarters of the Helmand Valley Authority, a multipurpose dam project funded by the United States. [custom_adv] This unexpected proliferation of modernity led Toynbee to reflect on the warning of Sophocles: “the craft of his engines surpasseth his dreams.” In the area around Kandahar, traditional Afghanistan had vanished.
