A Brief History Of Pakistan

From the Publisher: A Brief History of Pakistan attempts to answer these questions in a concise yet thorough account. By illuminating the nation's past, this book offers readers a detailed perspective of Pakistan today and enables them to consider soundly how the country, once a birthplace of civilization, might change in the future.

This comprehensive one-volume history of Pakistan covers contemporary crises in the perspective of the subcontinent's ancient and medieval history to explain how Muslim nationalism emerged and how the community interacted with the other communities in the region. The author breaches the confines of political history to depict the intellectual, economic, diplomatic, and cultural history of Pakistan.

"A must-read for anyone interested in the intrigue of politics in the most dangerous country on earth" (The Sunday Times) Read the unique insider's view of a country unfamiliar to a Western audience, seen through the eyes of the man set to become Pakistan's new Prime Minister. Born only five years after Pakistan was created in 1947, Imran Khan has lived his country's history. Undermined by a ruling elite, and unable to protect its people from the carnage of regular bombings from terrorists and its own ally, America, Pakistan has for years suffered from instability. Now Imran Khan and his own political party, the Tehreek-e-Insaf, offer a real political alternative for the people of Pakistan at a time when tension between Pakistan's government and the powerful military has reached dangerous new levels. How did this flashpoint of volatility and injustice come about? Pakistan: A Personal History provides a unique insider's view of a country unfamiliar to a western audience. Woven into this history we see how Imran Khan's personal life - his happy childhood in Lahore, his Oxford education, his extraordinary cricketing career, his marriage to Jemima Goldsmith, his mother's influence and that of his Islamic faith - inform both the historical narrativeandhis current philanthropic and political activities. It is at once absorbing and insightful, casting fresh light upon a country whose culture he believes is largely misunderstood by the West.

A History of Pakistan and its Origins is a comprehensive, detailed and fully up-to-date study of one of the most diverse, volatile and strategically significant countries in the world today. Born in turmoil barely half a century ago, Pakistan seems to be in an interminable pursuit of its own identity and at the same time finds itself a pivotal player in world politics. Its short existence has witnessed much: four coups d' tat; the rise of Islam as a power; tensions between ethnic, religious and separatist movements; the Kashmir conflict and the near-constant war footing with India. This text charts half a century of nation-building in Pakistan, while at the same time placing the country within the context of its relations with the outside world.

In Purifying the Land of the Pure, Farahnaz Ispahani analyzes Pakistan's policies towards its religious minority populations, both Muslim and non-Muslim, since independence in 1947.

Winner of the 2021 Overseas Press Club of America Cornelius Ryan Award The former New York Times Pakistan bureau chief paints an arresting, up-close portrait of a fractured country. Declan Walsh is one of the New York Times’s most distinguished international correspondents. His electrifying portrait of Pakistan over a tumultuous decade captures the sweep of this strange, wondrous, and benighted country through the dramatic lives of nine fascinating individuals. On assignment as the country careened between crises, Walsh traveled from the raucous port of Karachi to the salons of Lahore, and from Baluchistan to the mountains of Waziristan. He met a diverse cast of extraordinary Pakistanis—a chieftain readying for war at his desert fort, a retired spy skulking through the borderlands, and a crusading lawyer risking death for her beliefs, among others. Through these “nine lives” he describes a country on the brink—a place of creeping extremism and political chaos, but also personal bravery and dogged idealism that defy easy stereotypes. Unbeknownst to Walsh, however, an intelligence agent was tracking him. Written in the aftermath of Walsh’s abrupt deportation, The Nine Lives of Pakistan concludes with an astonishing encounter with that agent, and his revelations about Pakistan’s powerful security state. Intimate and complex, attuned to the centrifugal forces of history, identity, and faith, The Nine Lives of Pakistan offers an unflinching account of life in a precarious, vital country.