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Games Without Rules

The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan

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Games Without Rules

By: Tamim Ansary
Narrated by: Tamim Ansary
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About this listen

Today, most Westerners still see the war in Afghanistan as a contest between democracy and Islamist fanaticism. That war is real, but it sits atop an older struggle between Kabul and the countryside, between order and chaos, between a modernist impulse to join the world and the pull of an older Afghanistan - a tribal universe of village republics permeated by Islam.

Now, Tamim Ansary draws on his Afghan background, Muslim roots, and Western and Afghan sources to explain history from the inside out and to illuminate the long, internal struggle that the outside world has never fully understood. It is the story of a nation struggling to take form, a nation undermined by its own demons while every 40 to 60 years a great power disrupts whatever progress has been made. Related in storytelling style, Games Without Rules provides revelatory insight into a country at the center of political debate.

Tamim Ansary is the award-winning author of Destiny Disrupted and West of Kabul, East of New York. He has been a major contributing writer to several secondary-school history textbooks offering an Islamic perspective.

©2012 Tamim Ansary (P)2012 Blackstone Audio, Inc Asia Middle East Politics & Government Turkey World War Iran

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Critic reviews

"A breezy, accessible overview of centuries of messy Afghan history, including the present military quagmire…. Lively instruction on how Afghanistan has coped, and continues to cope, with being a strategic flash point." ( Kirkus Reviews)
"In Games Without Rules, Tamim Ansary has written the most engaging, accessible and insightful history of Afghanistan. With gifted prose and revealing details, Ansary gives us the oft-neglected Afghan perspective of the wars, foreign meddling, and palace intrigue that has defined the past few centuries between the Indus and Oxus. This brilliant book should be required reading for anyone involved in the current war there - and anyone who wants to understand why Afghanistan will not be at peace anytime soon." (Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author of Little America: The War within the War for Afghanistan)
All stars
Most relevant
Very detailed.

This books adds colour to the history of Afghanistan in a way that similar such books by non-Afghan writers have not been able to.

Ansary's cultural understanding, time spent in Afghanistan and stories from his family tell a story very similar and familiar to other Afghans.

Yet still added a valuable perspective and presents well thought arguments.

I hope he writes more books and reads it himself. Hearing him pronounce Afghan words properly was a breath of fresh air in an Audible category of White American men completely butchering the words.

The best book on Afghanistan I have come across

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A really interesting history of an extremely complex country, written and performed with humour by the author. Thank you.

Excellent potted history

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This does not seek to be an authoratitative history of Afghanistan. The book has a very informal, openly subjective, style, there are a few misunderstandings about other countries, and it only gives the last couple of centuries of Afghan history in any detail. Even within this time-frame, the earlier parts of the book are principally setting the scene for using very recent history to communicate an understanding of contemporary Afghanistan. If you can accept this, and so long as you don't object too strongly to the author's narrative, Games Without Rules is an outstanding book.

--- Rather than simply telling the story of powerful individuals (though it does this too), the book conveys as much of a country's culture as a history book can hope to do, which is essential for a westerner to begin to understand recent events. To pick just one moment within the book, who could fail to empathise with, even be warmed by, Kabul's chorus of "Allahu Akbar" as a rejection of the Soviets? Who could fail to see a link between this and the later direction of Afghanistan's domestic politics? And who could fail to see why the British, Soviets and Americans all had a lot in common, when viewed from the Afghan perspective?

--- Unlike some readers, I appreciated the author's frequent anecdotes and mentions of his own family. Firstly, they helped to give perspectives of slightly more ordinary Afghans (though of course his family are not ordinary), something too lacking from most history books. Secondly, they laid bare biases (for example, why he would be more sympathetic to the USA than to other foreign powers), which all authors have, and which are best placed in the open rather than concealed by artificial distance.

--- The narration is much better than you would expect from the author of a history book. It is an audiobook book that I can equally use as wallpaper, even sleep to, or closely focus on for the fascinating story it tells.

Gives Afghan perspective in a very accessible way

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As an Afghan I found this book really informative and extremely well balanced and honest. The author has done a fantastic job in explaining the situation from an Afghan perspective. The explanation of Afghan society and how it has shaped Afghan history is really accurate. I think this can be a very good read for anyone trying to make sense of this country and to understand why it has suffered so much. I can’t recommend this book enough. At the end I want to thank the author Tamim Ansary for his hard work in writing such a masterpiece.

The best book on Afghanistan

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A must read for those interested in Afghanistan. Fantastically narrated by Tamim Ansary himself - much more powerful.

Master piece of contemporary Afghan history

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