Pakistan: A Modern History - Softcover

'A first rate history of Pakistan...each new telling of the Pakistan story inevitably throws up new insights ... this book is replete with them ... an objective and positive assessment. The most up to date single volume account of Pakistan.' -Friday Times, Lahore 'Bound to become a standard reference among the watchers of South Asia.'-Publishers Weekly 'Essential reading for scholars and students seeking an informed narrative of Pakistani political history.'-Journal of Asian Studies 'Talbot's original analysis, which introduced Pakistan as a "state searching for a national identity", is as relevant today as it was upon its first publication. - Recent events are treated in two substantial epilogues. The first epilogue, entitled "Musharraf's Pakistan", examines the new foreign policy challenges in the light of an historical understanding of politics in the region. - A second epilogue covers the period until the end of 2008 and the election as President of Asif Ali Zardari, Benazir Bhutto's widower. - This book is extremely useful. The analysis is historically informed and avoids the hyperbole that has all too often accompanied analysis of Pakistan and its relations with its neighbours. ... it would be a brave observer who would disagree with Talbot's assessment that the 'goal of democratic consolidation and of a total normalisation of civil-military relations appears as distant as ever' - Contemporary South Asia

This book fills the need for a broad, historically sophisticated understanding of Pakistan, a country which is understood by many in the West only in terms of stereotypes-the fanatical, authoritarian and reactionary 'other' which is unfavourably compared to a tolerant, democratic and progressive India. Pakistan is in reality a complex plural society which although greatly shaped by the colonial inheritance and circumstances of its birth, is also experiencing rapid change. Talbot's approach breaks down stereotypes and assists in answering the vexed question of why democracy has succeeded in India, while Pakistan has been subject to long periods of authoritarianism during its five decades of existence. He brings the story of Pakistan right up to date and discusses the rise of jihadi militancy, the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the resilience of its people in the face of military dictatorship and economic hardship.