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Jun. 10th, 2014 02:18 pmGames Without Rules: The Often Interrupted History of Afghanistan by Tamim Ansary (13) This is an excellent history of Afghanistan, more or less from the 18th century to the present day. It's written by an Afghan who has spent most of his adult life in the US but has many family connections to the pre-Communist elite that tried to bring modern, Western ideas to Afghan government and culture. He writes a very clear-eyed account of the ways in which Afghan history has featured an eternal tension, sometimes rising to a struggle, between its traditional, clan-based, agricultural conservative society and each generation's crop of reformers and liberalisers. Overlaid across these tidal movements are the occasional massive disruptions caused by foreign actors seeking to bend Afghanistan to their will.
Ansary's work is comprehensive in its scope, but not so exhaustive or academic as to be boring to the casual reader. For me, it filled out and knit together passages that I knew a little about (the First and Second Anglo-Afghan Wars that I've read about and the years of the Soviet invasion that I experienced through the nightly news) with other periods just as fascnating that I knew nothing about (the founding of Afghanistan by Ahmed Shah Durrani in the 1740s or the rule of "the Iron Emir" Abdur Rahman Khan, of the too-western King Amanullah, and of the figurehead Zahir Shah and his Richelieu-ish uncle Nadir Shah). I listened to it (as I do many books these days) while commuting, and I have to say honestly that I looked forward to my drive every day. On a recent theme of other reviews, Ansary reads the book himself, and he does an excellent job. He reads--or, really, speaks--with animation and charm; his rendition of his book is a pleasure to listen too, and having the author reading makes the passages where he speaks about his own experiences or those of his family members even more engaging. I would recommend this book to anyone who has even a passing interest in the topic, especially if you can find the recorded version.
In progress
Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel by Max Blumenthal
Dunkirk: Retreat to Victory by MG Julian Thompson
Empire of the Mind: A History of Iran by Michael Axworthy
Boer Commando by Denneys Reitz
Ansary's work is comprehensive in its scope, but not so exhaustive or academic as to be boring to the casual reader. For me, it filled out and knit together passages that I knew a little about (the First and Second Anglo-Afghan Wars that I've read about and the years of the Soviet invasion that I experienced through the nightly news) with other periods just as fascnating that I knew nothing about (the founding of Afghanistan by Ahmed Shah Durrani in the 1740s or the rule of "the Iron Emir" Abdur Rahman Khan, of the too-western King Amanullah, and of the figurehead Zahir Shah and his Richelieu-ish uncle Nadir Shah). I listened to it (as I do many books these days) while commuting, and I have to say honestly that I looked forward to my drive every day. On a recent theme of other reviews, Ansary reads the book himself, and he does an excellent job. He reads--or, really, speaks--with animation and charm; his rendition of his book is a pleasure to listen too, and having the author reading makes the passages where he speaks about his own experiences or those of his family members even more engaging. I would recommend this book to anyone who has even a passing interest in the topic, especially if you can find the recorded version.
In progress
Goliath: Life and Loathing in Greater Israel by Max Blumenthal
Dunkirk: Retreat to Victory by MG Julian Thompson
Empire of the Mind: A History of Iran by Michael Axworthy
Boer Commando by Denneys Reitz
