• Afghanistan

  • A Cultural and Political History
  • By: Thomas Barfield
  • Narrated by: Robin Bloodworth
  • Length: 17 hrs and 22 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (234 ratings)

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Afghanistan  By  cover art

Afghanistan

By: Thomas Barfield
Narrated by: Robin Bloodworth
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Publisher's summary

Afghanistan traces the historic struggles and the changing nature of political authority in this volatile region of the world, from the Mughal Empire in the 16th century to the Taliban resurgence today. Thomas Barfield introduces listeners to the bewildering diversity of tribal and ethnic groups in Afghanistan, explaining what unites them as Afghans despite the regional, cultural, and political differences that divide them. He shows how governing these peoples was relatively easy when power was concentrated in a small dynastic elite, but how this delicate political order broke down in the 19th and 20th centuries when Afghanistan's rulers mobilized rural militias to expel first the British and later the Soviets.

Armed insurgency proved remarkably successful against the foreign occupiers, but it also undermined the Afghan government's authority and rendered the country ever more difficult to govern as time passed. Barfield vividly describes how Afghanistan's armed factions plunged the country into a civil war, giving rise to clerical rule by the Taliban and Afghanistan's isolation from the world. He examines why the American invasion in the wake of September 11 toppled the Taliban so quickly, and how this easy victory lulled the United States into falsely believing that a viable state could be built just as easily.

Afghanistan is essential listening for anyone who wants to understand how a land conquered and ruled by foreign dynasties for more than a thousand years became the "graveyard of empires" for the British and Soviets, and what the United States must do to avoid a similar fate.

©2010 Princeton University Press (P)2012 Audible, Inc.
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

Critic reviews

"In this riveting study, Barfield does a splendid job of informing us why Afghanistan is the way it has always been." ( Daily Star)
"This book is an authoritative and well-written summary of what we might call the majority view. There is a streak in this book, however, of more radical thinking. . . . It leads him near the end of the book to some startling predictions for Afghanistan's possible futures." ( Gerard Russell Foreign Policy)
"Thomas Barfield's new book offers a remedy for Americans' pervasive ignorance of Afghanistan. . . . Afghanistan: A Cultural and Political History is an invaluable book. Mr. Barfield does not give the United States a way out of Afghanistan, but he does provide the context necessary for good policymaking." (Doug Bandow, Washington Times)

What listeners say about Afghanistan

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great overview of Afghanistan's history

What made the experience of listening to Afghanistan the most enjoyable?

Interesting perspective on tribal/cultural dynamics. Goes more in depth into actual Afghan historical politics vs. the more traditional US foreign policy-perspective books which are more widely published.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Interesting content, poor production

The historical background and social context this book brings to its examination of Afghanistan is very interesting. The Audible production, however, is terrible.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Book good, production atrocious.

The book is great. It's an interesting overview of an area where those aren't particularly easy to find. The narrator is fine as well. Someone should check on whoever produced this audiobook, though. It is awfully produced. It constantly has segments spliced in to the reading which sound really out of place. I think it's by the same narrator but surely recorded on a different day or in different circumstance because they sound so different that every time it happens it's incredibly grating. It's not infrequent either. It happens all the time. I assume it was done because the missed something in the original reading, but how is it possible that they needed to do that so often? Did the book change in the middle of the making of the audiobook?

It's a real shame for an otherwise enjoyable and interesting book.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Good details but....

I see too much of northern Afghanistan’s influence in his writing. That makes it less of an overall history of Afghanistan and more history of northern Afghanistan and their role in the region.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Awful narration

Great content, but possibly the worst narration I've listened to. Inconsistent pronunciation, using absurd accents for quotes, etc.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Very thorough and entertaining

The book covers a large expanse of history of the land that is now considered Afghanistan. It evaluates the social, societal, and religious reasons for unity or disunity. And it looks to explain why the region is the way that we see it today.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Enlightening

Comprehensive and insightful breakdown of Afghanistan’s history. Why do I need to have atleast 15 words? It’s silly.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Great overall

This is a great book overall. The negatives first though. The narrator’s voice changes every few paragraphs, and it’s weird, but for an adhd person like me, it kept snapping me back to the story and kept my attention. Hahah maybe a good or bad thing. Also, this thing is long and dry, and occasionally a little redundant, but it is definitely complete, and easy to soak up and retain the information.

The better aspects of this book are how it’s presented and put together. If you’re a serious history dork like I am, this is a great book. It fully explains the history, cultures, politics, religion, war, society, all of it, and fills in the entire timeline of each. But that’s all I’ve got

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Almost fiction

History of Afghanistan is so murky,
It’s hard to know what’s true and what’s not. And The narrator butchered just about every pronunciation, it was a painful listen.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

why is the narration such a mess?

The story is extremely detailed to the point of being somewhat boring, but narration is just horrible! Why does he keep changing voices (and possibly mics) randomly between lines? Once or twice is acceptable, but fifteen times a chapter really?

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