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Games without Rules: The Often-Interrupted History of Afghanistan Hardcover – November 27, 2012

by Tamim Ansary (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars 59 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 416 pages
  • Publisher: PublicAffairs (November 27, 2012)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1610390946
  • ISBN-13: 978-1610390941
  • Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #697,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Top Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starslike listening to the best storyteller in the world
By bookfan on November 20, 2012
Format: Hardcover
I picked this up because I'm a fan of Ansary's fiction and memoir. I resolved to read it some time in the future when I get time. Then I made the mistake of glancing at page one. Okay, just one chapter, I thought. I read the whole book in four days with a constant awareness that I didn't have time for this, but I just couldn't stop. Then I remembered I'd had the same experience with other books he's written. I really don't have words to describe how rich and unique and surprising the story of Afghanistan is, but Ansary is the perfect guy to tell it.
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5.0 out of 5 starsOutstanding cultural and political history!
By lit-in-the-last-frontier on November 25, 2012
Format: Hardcover
Of all the histories I have read on Afghanistan, and I have read more than a few, Tamim Ansary's is absolutely the best. Whether your knowledge is a clean slate and you are looking for one book that will explain this complex nation, or you are fairly conversant in the country, but want a brief refresher, Mr. Ansary will lay out everything you need to know in his latest offering. Games without Rules begins with the rise of the Durrani line and brings the reader up through the present, with reporting through May of 2012.

Tamim Ansary does a number of things in his book that make it especially accessible for readers, but chief among them is linking events in Afghanistan to events with which his readers might be more familiar, such as the fact that the opening of his work, the dawning of the Durrani Empire, with its founder Ahmad Shah Baba, known as Afghanistan's Founding Father, happened in 1747, roughly the same time as the founding of the United States of America. Over the course of reading the book the reader will also learn a great deal about the histories of India, Pakistan, and the neighboring central Asian republics, as the destinies of these nations and that of Afghanistan are all inter-linked. Another fact about Mr. Ansary's writing that becomes quickly apparent is that this is not the writing of a dry, boring scholar of a historian. While never stooping to comedy or disdain, he manages to always keep a storyteller's mien, full of adventure and humor and at times even anger and despair.Read more ›
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3.0 out of 5 starsGreat Potential, Poor Analysis
By Sam Wilkins on February 3, 2014
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
America’s twelve year war in Afghanistan has sprung a veritable cottage industry of books dubbed “required reading” for those involved in or seeking to understand the “why” behind America’s seemingly Sisyphean struggle against the Taliban. Tamim Ansary’s Games Without Rules, is the latest addition to this volume of work. The title refers to the uniquely Afghan game of Buzkashi- a violent contest in which a mounted individual attempts to carry a goat carcass through a goal, against the opposition of all other players. There are no rules, no teams, and no set number of players. Each individual plays for his own glory alone. Ansary’s work, while full of interesting metaphors and pithy insights such as the one above, fails to tell a coherent narrative of Afghanistan’s modern era.
The core thesis of Games is that Afghan history is at its core a struggle between the modernist, centralizing, and imperial impulses of Kabul and the “timeless,” Islamist, and de-centralized tribal system of the countryside. Ansary considers global events, such as the imperial competition between 19th century Great Britain and Russia, the Cold War, and America’s “War on Terror,” through what he considers to be an Afghan perspective. This theory and unique perspective gave the work tremendous potential as an Afghan version of Odd Arne Westad’s The Global Cold War, a revolutionary book in Cold War historiography because of its unique Third World perspective on what was previously viewed only through the lenses of the dueling superpowers. Ansary, however, spoils this potential with his flippant tone, lack of academic research, and bold but unfounded generalizations.
Games possesses a narrative style that intentionally resembles a Pashtoon’s storytelling.Read more ›
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5.0 out of 5 starsEasy, and difficult, to read - an outstanding book
By willearnest on May 9, 2013
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
The author writes in a very conversational, story-telling, style. It's an easy read, but difficult for me in another way. As an Army officer in the Vietnam era, it's difficult to read about the mistakes we've repeated, and the people we've tried to help, but harmed, yet again in an admittedly different time and place. I think the author's statement that Afghanistan is a twenty-first century culture overlaying a twelfth century culture is probably his key point. Afghanistan's location is probably always going to make it a place where great powers, of one form or another, will contend for influence. Sadly, Pakistan - another state that isn't a state but a place, created when the British abandoned the area - is increasingly feeling the consequences of its nurturing of the Taliban.

It's an engaging read by a knowledgeable author who has lived a good part of the recent history. Sad, but ultimately hopeful. Would that our leaders in the US would read this book and learn from it before we recreate another tragedy both in another place and here, ultimately, at home. The consequences of Vietnam on our own veterans are peaking now, forty years later. I shudder to think of what we'll see in another 30-40 years as consequences of our "wars of convenience" and "wars of consequences".
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent history, easy to read

This book should be widely read by Americans. Our failed policies have added to Afghan chaos. Excellent history, easy to read. Written by an Afghani.

Published 15 days ago by Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 starsExcellent!

Excellent book! It tells Afghanistan's story in a concise and interesting way. I would recommend it to anyone interested in Afghanistan's history as a nation.

Published 27 days ago by Jose Espinho
5.0 out of 5 starsThe Afghanistan Fiasco Explained

How tragic and irresponsible that when the United States blundered into Afghanistan, it did so (as with Vietnam) without understanding the country and its history. Read more

Published 7 months ago by Tom Miller
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Fantastic book. An absolute must read for anyone looking to understand the mess in Afghanistan.

Published 8 months ago by Reed Lefler
5.0 out of 5 starsThis is the book that all the policy-makers should read.

The author provides the relevant history and sociology, going back a couple of hundred years. The basic problem is that Afghanistan is more complicated than any sound-bite can... Read more

Published 10 months ago by Rich Marsh
5.0 out of 5 stars... first few pages that this is not only an excellent body of work...

You can tell by the first few pages that this is not only an excellent body of work but a book coming from the heart of the author. A very well educated, cultured author. Read more

Published 10 months ago by Austin
5.0 out of 5 starsAfghan POV at Last !

This is the best book, from an Afghan's view of recent history, that I have ever read. I have Ahmed Rashid (a Pakistani point ov
f view - various soldier's stories, from a US... Read more

Published 12 months ago by David J. Boyd
5.0 out of 5 starsFive Stars

Precise and informative.

Published 12 months ago by Bari N.
4.0 out of 5 starsreally an eye opener

The author does a splendid job of presenting a non partisan and very objective historical perspective of Afghanistans history and political turmoil. Read more

Published 13 months ago by R. Burns
5.0 out of 5 starseasy to read

Well written, easy to read.

Published 13 months ago by Kanishka R.

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