John Whelpton's history is the first comprehensive and accessible single-volume history of Nepal. Early chapters are devoted to the origins of the kingdom, while the focus of the book is on the last fifty years when economic and political turmoil climaxed in the massacre of the royal family and the resulting civil war.
'A History of Nepal will be of interest to any student of South Asian studies, since it fills a serious lacuna in scholarship on the region. ... Whelpton's text is the first accessible overview of Nepal's political history published by a university press in English. ... Whelpton deserves much praise for rising to the challenge of writing a comprehensive yet orderly history of a nation ... Whelpton succeeds on all accounts. As a result, A History of Nepal is a compelling narrative introduction to this frequently misunderstood country.' The Times Higher Education Supplement