Name: Games without Rules
ISBN: 9781610393195

Tamim Ansary

By the author of Destiny Disrupted: an enlightening, accessible history of modern Afghanistan from the Afghan point of view, showing how Great Power conflicts have interrupted its ongoing, internal struggle to take form as a nation

The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan

Games without Rules

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 crashes in and disrupts whatever progress has been made. Told in conversational, storytelling style, and focusing on key events and personalities, Games without Rules provides revelatory insight into a country at the center of political debate.

Yasser Yahia

I have only know Afghanistan through the news, especially after the 9/11 incident when the country name was everywhere on the news. My image about the country was what everyone saw in the news and it seemed that everyone agrees on a single picture of how Afghanistan and the Afghani people look like, and to be frank that picture lacked depth and never made me think that it would be interesting to dive deeper and know more about this part of the world! 

But I was wrong! 

This book takes you into a journey through history of how countries are formed from scratch, and how a collection of total strangers with different beliefs can come together because of different reasons. It made me understand more why this part of the world was the center of fights and wars even before the countries wealth was discovered, and how ignorance could push people from different backgrounds to repeat the same mistakes over and over ... and they still do!

Tamim Ansary is becoming my favorite author for historical writing because of his abilities to keep me engaged throughout the book, and the way that he can turn historical events into a story that keeps you waiting for what is going to happen next. I definitely learned a lot reading this book, and would definitely recommend it to whoever's interested in knowing more about history in general or Afghanistan's history in specific.

Games without Rules The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan

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