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    Playing with Fire: Pakistan at War with Itself
    Unavailable
    Playing with Fire: Pakistan at War with Itself
    Unavailable
    Playing with Fire: Pakistan at War with Itself
    Ebook401 pages6 hours

    Playing with Fire: Pakistan at War with Itself

    By Pamela Constable

    3.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    A volatile nation at the heart of major cultural, political, and religious conflicts in the world today, Pakistan commands our attention. Yet more than six decades after the country’s founding as a Muslim democracy, it continues to struggle over its basic identity, alliances, and direction. In Playing with Fire, acclaimed journalist Pamela Constable peels back layers of contradiction and confusion to reveal the true face of modern Pakistan.

    In this richly reported and movingly written chronicle, Constable takes us on a panoramic tour of contemporary Pakistan, exploring the fears and frustrations, dreams and beliefs, that animate the lives of ordinary citizens in this nuclear-armed nation of 170 million. From the opulent, insular salons of the elite to the brick quarries where soot-covered workers sell their kidneys to get out of debt, this is a haunting portrait of a society riven by inequality and corruption, and increasingly divided by competing versions of Islam.

    Beneath the façade of democracy in Pakistan, Constable reveals the formidable hold of its business, bureaucratic, and military elites—including the country’s powerful spy agency, the ISI. This is a society where the majority of the population feels powerless, and radical Islamist groups stoke popular resentment to recruit shock troops for global jihad. Writing with an uncommon ear for the nuances of this conflicted culture, Constable explores the extent to which faith permeates every level of Pakistani society—and the ambivalence many Muslims feel about the role it should play in the life of the nation.

    Both an empathic and alarming look inside one of the world’s most violent and vexing countries, Playing with Fire is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand modern Pakistan and its momentous role on today’s global stage.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
    Release dateJul 19, 2011
    ISBN9780679603450
    Unavailable
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    Reviews for Playing with Fire

    3.5/5

    7 ratings2 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A fascinating, insightful and troubling chroinicle of contemporary Pakistan. Current up to and including the killing of Osama bin Laden, Constable covers a wide range of subjects: systemic corruption in business and government, economic disparities, the military as national institution, rising influence of the Taliban in rural areas, the struggle between fundamentalist and moderate Islam, the ongoing repression of women and religious minorities, tribal society traditions, and much more.
    • 4/5
      Washington Post reporter Pamela Constable has done a remarkable job in this survey of where Pakistan stands 64 years after its founding. Rather than focusing on the political wrangling at the pinnacle of state, each chapter focuses on a different episode that she covered during her time reporting from the country, and then explores how that highlights broader cultural, legal, political or economic issues affecting the country. To a certain extent (though not completely) Constable is able to break away from the single-minded focus on the country through the prism of the War on Terror. For the most part its a depressing read and one can't help but feel that one is exploring a country that in some important respects lost its way.