Pakistan: A Hard Country

Description

DAILY TELEGRAPH and INDEPENDENT BOOKS OF THE YEAR

LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2012

2011 LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE FINALIST

In the past decade Pakistan has become a country of immense importance to its region, the United States, and the world. With almost 200 million people, a 500,000-man army, nuclear weapons, and a large diaspora in Britain and North America, Pakistan is central to the hopes of jihadis and the fears of their enemies. Yet the greatest short-term threat to Pakistan is not Islamist insurgency as such, but the actions of the United States, and the greatest long-term threat is ecological change.

Anatol Lieven’s book is a magisterial investigation of this highly complex and often poorly understood country: its regions, ethnicities, competing religious traditions, varied social landscapes, deep political tensions, and historical patterns of violence; but also its surprising underlying stability, rooted in kinship, patronage, and the power of entrenched local elites. Engagingly written, combining history and profound analysis with reportage from Lieven’s extensive travels as a journalist and academic, Pakistan: A Hard Country is both utterly compelling and deeply revealing.

Lieven’s profound and sophisticated analysis paves the way for clearer understanding of this remarkable and highly contradictory country.

Reviews

Superb … Few writers offer the insight and deep knowledge that Lieven has of a country critical for the West but one often caricatured by the media and rarely understood by Western policy makers… Timely and compelling – Maleeha Lodhi

This is a wonderful book, full of learning, wisdom, humour and common sense – Peter Oborne, Daily Telegraph

One cannot give Lieven enough credit… The book seamlessly flows with historical analysis, anthropological investigation, and painstaking contextualization.. It is both grand in its scholastic description and in its journalistic flair – Ahmad Ali Khalid, Dawn

A finely researched blend of the nation’s 64-year history… Lieven’s feat lies in his remarkable, flesh-and-blood portrait of the nation… this nuanced analysis should be read, and learned from – The Independent

By far the most insightful survey of Pakistan I have read in recent years… a vital book… detailed and nuanced – Mohsin Hamid, New York Review of Books

Lieven captures the richness of the place wonderfully. His book has the virtues of both journalism and scholarship – The Economist

An important corrective to the monolithic view of Pakistan… fresh and deeply informed – Patrick French, Mail on Sunday

A brilliantly articulated and researched argument … Lieven is a wonderful writer. There are frequent moments of dark humour… and descriptions that a novelist might envy – Kamila Shamsie, The Times

Everybody nowadays seems to take a view on Pakistan. Very few know what they’re talking about. Anatol Lieven is that rare observer… Pakistan: A Hard Country… fills a large gap in our understanding – Edward Luce, author of ‘In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India’

The publication of Pakistan: A Hard Country could not be more timely … illuminating as well as entertaining – The Spectator

Author Biography

Anatol Lieven is a professor at Georgetown University in Qatar and a Fellow of the New America Foundation in Washington DC. He was previously a professor in the War Studies Department of King’s College, London. He worked for twelve years as a British foreign correspondent, reporting from South Asia, the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe for The Times and other publications. His books include Chechnya: Tombstone of Russian Power (1998); America Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism (second edition 2011); Ethical Realism: A Vision for America’s Role in the World (with John Hulsman) (2006) and Pakistan: A Hard Country (2011, published by Penguin).