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Review
A superb book about the complex but misunderstood reality of the world's second largest Muslim nation from an author who explains lucidly and compellingly why this troubled state is also a resilient one. 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 for writing a book that combines all the eloquence and sophistication of an academic with the commonsense approach, humour and precision of a journalist ... With Lieven's work one does not have to sacrifice subtlety, intricacy and nuance for readability or accessibility ... It is both grand in its scholastic description and in its journalistic flair, providing the reader with a real texture of the multi-dimensional nature of Pakistan's people ... a synthesis of cultural commentary, sociological clout, anthropological investigation, political psychology and moral empathy (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 )
Lieven is that rare observer - a scholar who writes like the best kind of foreign correspondent about a country that he takes and measures on its own terms. Pakistan: A Hard Country offers an intimate and compellingly relevant portrait of an increasingly pivotal nation to the future of the world, for better or for worse. It fills a large gap in our understanding (Edward Luce, Author Of 'in Spite Of The Gods: The Strange Rise Of Modern India' )
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 )
The publication of Pakistan: A Hard Country could not be more timely ... illuminating as well as entertaining (The Spectator )
With patience and determination, Lieven observes and records all aspects of the curiosity otherwise known as Pakistan ... A sweeping and insightful narrative (Mohammed Hanif The New York Times )
This is a wonderful book, full of learning, wisdom, humour and common sense (Peter Oborne Daily Telegraph )
One cannot give Lieven enough credit for writing a book that combines all the eloquence and sophistication of an academic with the commonsense approach, humour and precision of a journalist ... With Lieven's work one does not have to sacrifice subtlety, intricacy and nuance for readability or accessibility ... It is both grand in its scholastic description and in its journalistic flair, providing the reader with a real texture of the multi-dimensional nature of Pakistan's people ... a synthesis of cultural commentary, sociological clout, anthropological investigation, political psychology and moral empathy (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 )
Lieven is that rare observer - a scholar who writes like the best kind of foreign correspondent about a country that he takes and measures on its own terms. Pakistan: A Hard Country offers an intimate and compellingly relevant portrait of an increasingly pivotal nation to the future of the world, for better or for worse. It fills a large gap in our understanding (Edward Luce, Author Of 'in Spite Of The Gods: The Strange Rise Of Modern India' )
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 )
The publication of Pakistan: A Hard Country could not be more timely ... illuminating as well as entertaining (The Spectator )
With patience and determination, Lieven observes and records all aspects of the curiosity otherwise known as Pakistan ... A sweeping and insightful narrative (Mohammed Hanif The New York Times )
Review
"Kirkus," February 15, 2011
"Lieven breaks down his study by specific region; considers the structures of justice, religion, the military and politics in turn; and, finally, in a skillful, insightful synthesis, addresses the history of and issues concerning the Taliban, both Pakistani and Afghani. A well-reasoned, welcome resource for Western "experts" and lay readers alike.""Edward Luce
""Everybody nowadays seems to take a view on Pakistan. Very few know what they're talking about. Anatol Lieven is that rare observer - a scholar who writes like the best kind of foreign correspondent about a country that he takes and measures on its own terms. "Pakistan, a Hard Country" offers an intimate and compellingly relevant portrait of an increasingly pivotal nation to the future of the world, for better or for worse. It fills a large gap in our understanding."
"Huffington Post," April 3, 2011"Over the last decade, Lieven has been one of the smartest and most fair-minded commentators on the global situation, and in this important, very timely book, he explains the regions, classes, history, and prospects of Pakistan with equal value for both the neophyte and the expert. Based on Lieven's first-hand knowledge of the country for the past 20 years.""
Economist," April 7, 2011
"Yet for drama, colour and complexity, [Pakistan] is hard to beat; and Anatol Lieven captures the richness of the place wonderfully. His book has the virtues of both journalism and scholarship..."
"Foreign Policy's The AfPak Channel blog," April 11, 2011
"The release of Anatol Lieven's latest book, Pakistan: A Hard Country, could not be timelier. This insightful, comprehensive portrait of Pakistan is the perfect antidote to stereotypical descriptions of the country as the most dangerous place in the world... Pakistan: A Hard Country has the power to dampen the paranoia about Pakistan's security complex, put terrorism in perspective, and humanize Pakistanis." "Foreign Affairs," Ma
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
As someone that gets most of their ideas on Pakistan from the media - I generally would have a negative understanding of Pakistan. this book explains how modern Pakistan works and what the issues are in the present day. It explains the politics and military structures to a T.
I would give it five stars but the author's writing style involves a lot of parentheses which I found disrupted my reading flow.
If you want to know about Pakistan, buy this book, it will open your eyes. You may even fall in love with Pakistan.
I would give it five stars but the author's writing style involves a lot of parentheses which I found disrupted my reading flow.
If you want to know about Pakistan, buy this book, it will open your eyes. You may even fall in love with Pakistan.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Poses interesting question and a good overview, but the final word on Pakistan, it ain't.
12 May 2012
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'd seen several positive reviews of this book in the Guardian last year and had made a mental note to get myself a copy once it came out in paperback. Firstly, it's worth noting that this paperback edition features two maps of Pakistan, the first shows it and the countries it borders, the second is a more detailed zoomed in map detailing the various provinces of Punjab, Sindh etc. The lack of a map was a chief criticism of many of the preceding reviews on this page and one that almost convinced me to not buy the book, so I can only assume this has been changed since the release of the paperback.
Onto the book itself, having lived with a friend from Lahore at University, we found ourselves always drawn back to discussing his home nation and it's myriad of problems, the control the ISI wields, the paradox of Jinnah and the Taliban. Having both read it, we agreed that its an interesting piece of work but it does fall short in some respects. Several parts of the book are dedicated to discussing a certain province, Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. My friend's chief criticism here was the lack of discussion of the other peoples who make up the nation of Pakistan. Whilst, as Mr Lieven duly notes that Pakistan could not function without the hegemony that the multitudinous Punjabis enjoy,it's a shame to see the Parsi, Irani, and Pashtun people living outside of Balochistan not given much, if any column inches.
My second criticism would be how in the latter half of the book, it begins to tail off. Prophetically the last chapter is called 'Defeating the Taliban?' a problem so complex that a generation of statesman have failed to come close. Anyone who knows Pakistan knows that its leaders have always had one major concern, having safe borders with Iran, China and most importantly Afghanistan. Those following recent developments in Tehran and Kandahar will know this is not so, and until Pakistan loses its paranoia over war with India, any government in its various incarnations will continue to pay lip-service to the Taliban and the US, knowing that keeping one of the two onside is simply not viable.
In all, it probably sounds like I'm bashing the book but I'm not. It's a great piece of work on a country that still in its infancy in terms of books on the subject and well worth a read, just don't expect this to be the final word on Pakistan.
Onto the book itself, having lived with a friend from Lahore at University, we found ourselves always drawn back to discussing his home nation and it's myriad of problems, the control the ISI wields, the paradox of Jinnah and the Taliban. Having both read it, we agreed that its an interesting piece of work but it does fall short in some respects. Several parts of the book are dedicated to discussing a certain province, Punjab, Sindh and Balochistan. My friend's chief criticism here was the lack of discussion of the other peoples who make up the nation of Pakistan. Whilst, as Mr Lieven duly notes that Pakistan could not function without the hegemony that the multitudinous Punjabis enjoy,it's a shame to see the Parsi, Irani, and Pashtun people living outside of Balochistan not given much, if any column inches.
My second criticism would be how in the latter half of the book, it begins to tail off. Prophetically the last chapter is called 'Defeating the Taliban?' a problem so complex that a generation of statesman have failed to come close. Anyone who knows Pakistan knows that its leaders have always had one major concern, having safe borders with Iran, China and most importantly Afghanistan. Those following recent developments in Tehran and Kandahar will know this is not so, and until Pakistan loses its paranoia over war with India, any government in its various incarnations will continue to pay lip-service to the Taliban and the US, knowing that keeping one of the two onside is simply not viable.
In all, it probably sounds like I'm bashing the book but I'm not. It's a great piece of work on a country that still in its infancy in terms of books on the subject and well worth a read, just don't expect this to be the final word on Pakistan.
12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is an excellent book - well researched, authoritative, dense but readable. The "hard" in the title is multifaceted. It refers to the facts that Pakistan is hard to understand, hard to live in, hard to deal with, hard to be optimistic about its future......
I was left with the image of a square, slightly tipped so that the corners are at different heights.
On top, and most significant, is social conservatism through patronage, kinship, nepotism, corruption and something akin to "feudalism" (the inverted commas indicate its difference from the European model. In Pakistan it is not all land based or ancestral). Next in terms of significance is the army, possibly the only coherent and reasonably well run organisation in the country. It stands apart from most of the "feudal" and other problems but from time to time steps in and takes the reins of power. Forms of Islam are the third corner but these are fragmented and despite the problems they present this means that there is little threat of an Islamic takeover. At the bottom comes Government, ineffectually coloured by the kinship and Islamic corners.
Pakistan is an artificial concept, inadvisably created as West Pakistan (now Pakistan) was combined with East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to solve the Muslims in India problem. Following Muslim migrations out of India the misadventure continued with war between the two halves of Pakistan which split into separate countries. Hostility between Pakistan and India remains unabated. There are probable Pakistan Army links with the Afghanistan Taleban fostered as a strategic lever against India. An interesting point made almost as an aside is that there is little sense of nationality in Pakistan and that this is common in "countries" without a national education system. He compares this to the systems set up in Europe in previous times, in part for this purpose.
Pakistan exists as a negotiated state between the four corners. It is fragmented - amongst cultures, languages, tribes, political parties and religions. Even Islam is riven between conflicting and sometimes mixed versions of Shia, Sunni, Sufi, Bohra, inherited saints.... ..Language itself is problematic. The official language is Urdu though it is not spoken universally. Urdu that is unless you are high in society or a senior army officer when English takes over. Significantly, the news of Bib Laden's death was announced in the Pakistan Parliament in English !
Fear comes across strongly in the narrative. Fear of India, fear of "Islam in danger", rampant conspiracy theories and ethnic tensions.
Lieven sees Pakistan as a major threat to Asia and the rest of the world with little prospect of improvement. Regardless of the above, ecological (water shortage) problems will create their own crisis as the population grows, the local climate continues to change and water mismanagement continues. He offers little in the way of recommendations besides saying that India, China and the West need to take a collective lead.
One small but irritating omission from the book is a map of the area!
I was left with the image of a square, slightly tipped so that the corners are at different heights.
On top, and most significant, is social conservatism through patronage, kinship, nepotism, corruption and something akin to "feudalism" (the inverted commas indicate its difference from the European model. In Pakistan it is not all land based or ancestral). Next in terms of significance is the army, possibly the only coherent and reasonably well run organisation in the country. It stands apart from most of the "feudal" and other problems but from time to time steps in and takes the reins of power. Forms of Islam are the third corner but these are fragmented and despite the problems they present this means that there is little threat of an Islamic takeover. At the bottom comes Government, ineffectually coloured by the kinship and Islamic corners.
Pakistan is an artificial concept, inadvisably created as West Pakistan (now Pakistan) was combined with East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to solve the Muslims in India problem. Following Muslim migrations out of India the misadventure continued with war between the two halves of Pakistan which split into separate countries. Hostility between Pakistan and India remains unabated. There are probable Pakistan Army links with the Afghanistan Taleban fostered as a strategic lever against India. An interesting point made almost as an aside is that there is little sense of nationality in Pakistan and that this is common in "countries" without a national education system. He compares this to the systems set up in Europe in previous times, in part for this purpose.
Pakistan exists as a negotiated state between the four corners. It is fragmented - amongst cultures, languages, tribes, political parties and religions. Even Islam is riven between conflicting and sometimes mixed versions of Shia, Sunni, Sufi, Bohra, inherited saints.... ..Language itself is problematic. The official language is Urdu though it is not spoken universally. Urdu that is unless you are high in society or a senior army officer when English takes over. Significantly, the news of Bib Laden's death was announced in the Pakistan Parliament in English !
Fear comes across strongly in the narrative. Fear of India, fear of "Islam in danger", rampant conspiracy theories and ethnic tensions.
Lieven sees Pakistan as a major threat to Asia and the rest of the world with little prospect of improvement. Regardless of the above, ecological (water shortage) problems will create their own crisis as the population grows, the local climate continues to change and water mismanagement continues. He offers little in the way of recommendations besides saying that India, China and the West need to take a collective lead.
One small but irritating omission from the book is a map of the area!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Too opinionated.
This is another opinionated rambling from Lieven. Anatolii Lieven has an extensive history of writing rubbish, and miraculously enough, having it published. Read more
Published 3 months ago by JackTrip
Mumbles through the entire book
Unfortunately, this book suffers from poor editing and poorer academic merit. Lieven, the ever-assuming 'expert' on Pakistan, Central Asia, Middle East, and Africa, completely... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Darren Cowie
a great and insightful tome on Pakistan
Well written, easy to read and digest. The author has a great grasp of the country, it's traditions, weaknesses and various institutions and regions. Read more
Published 5 months ago by hafmaan
As Usual, wrong impression
This book is very long, but it misses the important point, its written to give its readers the wrong sense of a country. Read more
Published 5 months ago by A Pakistani
IMPORTANT BOOK
Clearly the result of a very long period of research and accumulated knowledge. Extremely well written for a difficult topic with a huge amount of information about a country with... Read more
Published 5 months ago by kenb
solid and courageous
having worked in pakistan every year since 1989 - in water management - and having lived there probably in the same period as anatol lieven's first stint i am amazed by this book. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Fwm Van Steenbergen
climb every mountain
This is a very long - indeed overlong book, at 500 pages, which not that many people, I suspect, will bother to plough through. It should have been edited down a lot. Read more
Published 11 months ago by munchkin
An informative read on a complex country
This timely book has its merits and could undoubtedly contribute to a more nuanced interpretation of events in this important country. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Joost Strickx
Really Fascinating
I agree with an earlier reviewer that this book could have done with at least one map. Also, at times, the author's style is a little idiosyncratic and it could probably have shed... Read more
Published 12 months ago by Seeker
MY ENEMY'S ENEMY'S ENEMY IS .... MY ENEMY!
This book is excellent as well as timely. It is full of clear thinking, colorful detail and rich anecdotes about a country whose fate is critical to the West. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Diacha
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