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Pakistan: At the Crosscurrent of History
A defense analyst surveys the turbulent history of Pakistan, offering an illuminating account of a troubled country where militarism and religious extremism have prevented the nation from reaching its full potential.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published December 2, 2003
5 people are currently reading
79 people want to read
About the author
Lawrence Ziring
23 books11 followersDr. Lawrence Ziring, a Western Michigan University political scientist who was internationally known as a leading expert on Pakistan.
Ziring was also one of the world's leading authorities on South Asia geopolitics, U.S. foreign policy for that region and NATO. He retired from WMU in 2004 as professor emeritus of political science and the Arnold E. Schneider professor emeritus of international relations.
During his more than 37 years at WMU, Ziring helped expand the University's international activity, serving as director of the Institute of Government and Politics. In 1982, his research and outreach activities were recognized when he was named a WMU Distinguished Faculty Scholar, the University's highest honor for a faculty member.
Ziring was the author or coauthor of dozens of books and articles on geopolitical issues, including the 2004 work "Pakistan: At the Crosscurrent of History." That book was hailed by those in and outside of that nation as a concise, perceptive and lucid history of the young nation that walks a historical tightrope between the fundamentalist Islamic forces that hold great internal power and the demands of a Western world determined to stamp out the roots of terrorism.
Even after retiring from the University, he continued his work exploring Pakistan's role in the modern world. As recently as May, a Pakistani news publication, Pakistan Today, lauded Ziring as one of just a handful of "widely known writers who have written copiously on issues related to Pakistan's history," especially post-1947 developments.
Within days of 9/11, Ziring correctly predicted that Pakistan would be the key to finding Osama bin Laden, as the Taliban was driven from Afghanistan. He also was a frequent and early commenter on the war in Iraq, predicting that the conflict would galvanize Islamic fundamentalists worldwide and lead to years of instability.
Ziring served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Defense, the Peace Corps and the U.S. Information Agency. He was a visiting fellow at Oxford University and a fellow of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. In 1990, the Atlantic Council of the United States selected him to participate in a NATO discussion series at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
Ziring, who entered college on the GI Bill after serving during the Korean War, was the first American student to enter the Pakistan Programme at Columbia University, and he visited Pakistan regularly starting in 1957. He earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Columbia. In addition to his WMU faculty position, he held teaching positions at Columbia, Lafayette College, Syracuse University; and Dhaka University in Bangladesh.
He was a founding member and the former president of the American Institute of Pakistan Studies, and for years, he prepared regular updates and end-of-year reviews on Pakistan for the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Ziring served on the editorial boards of seven professional journals and was a frequent contributor or lecturer for a number of research centers and institutes around the globe.
Ziring was also one of the world's leading authorities on South Asia geopolitics, U.S. foreign policy for that region and NATO. He retired from WMU in 2004 as professor emeritus of political science and the Arnold E. Schneider professor emeritus of international relations.
During his more than 37 years at WMU, Ziring helped expand the University's international activity, serving as director of the Institute of Government and Politics. In 1982, his research and outreach activities were recognized when he was named a WMU Distinguished Faculty Scholar, the University's highest honor for a faculty member.
Ziring was the author or coauthor of dozens of books and articles on geopolitical issues, including the 2004 work "Pakistan: At the Crosscurrent of History." That book was hailed by those in and outside of that nation as a concise, perceptive and lucid history of the young nation that walks a historical tightrope between the fundamentalist Islamic forces that hold great internal power and the demands of a Western world determined to stamp out the roots of terrorism.
Even after retiring from the University, he continued his work exploring Pakistan's role in the modern world. As recently as May, a Pakistani news publication, Pakistan Today, lauded Ziring as one of just a handful of "widely known writers who have written copiously on issues related to Pakistan's history," especially post-1947 developments.
Within days of 9/11, Ziring correctly predicted that Pakistan would be the key to finding Osama bin Laden, as the Taliban was driven from Afghanistan. He also was a frequent and early commenter on the war in Iraq, predicting that the conflict would galvanize Islamic fundamentalists worldwide and lead to years of instability.
Ziring served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of Defense, the Peace Corps and the U.S. Information Agency. He was a visiting fellow at Oxford University and a fellow of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. In 1990, the Atlantic Council of the United States selected him to participate in a NATO discussion series at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.
Ziring, who entered college on the GI Bill after serving during the Korean War, was the first American student to enter the Pakistan Programme at Columbia University, and he visited Pakistan regularly starting in 1957. He earned bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees from Columbia. In addition to his WMU faculty position, he held teaching positions at Columbia, Lafayette College, Syracuse University; and Dhaka University in Bangladesh.
He was a founding member and the former president of the American Institute of Pakistan Studies, and for years, he prepared regular updates and end-of-year reviews on Pakistan for the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Ziring served on the editorial boards of seven professional journals and was a frequent contributor or lecturer for a number of research centers and institutes around the globe.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 10, 2017
excellent book to read
March 6, 2020
Pak history in a nutshell. Excellent book.
March 31, 2019
Nice For Pak Studies.
August 19, 2014
Brilliant book detailing the history of Pakistan. If you have to read one book on Pakistan's history, pick this one. I liked the fact that the author is an American academic which makes his less prejudiced than a British or Pakistani historian.
The first chapter presents a riveting comparison between Gandhi and Jinnah.
Gandhi was a populist who had little time for rule of law.
His success was not in the courtroom but in raising huge public rallies.
His aim was undermining the existing colonial laws.
His target audience were the illiterate and the semi-educated.
His mass rallies were able to mobilise and energise people.
One was the darling of international media.
Many Muslim leaders identified with Gandhi and his Congress party.
While Jinnah was a luminary who wanted to work within the existing law.
The courtroom was his main battle ground.
His aim was changing laws by logical deductions.
His target audience were the literati and the educated leadership.
Political education, in his opinion would require years not months.
He was deeply committed to constitutional principles and legal processes.
Jinnah was an enigma to the media.
Lawrence makes some astute observations like the start of Islamisation right after Independence. He also notes that the Islamic parties were and remain the number enemy of of Jinnah's version of Pakistan.
This is a classical history book which details the various events in Pakistani timeline with commentary. The style of commentary is rather presumptuous though where the author takes liberties with assumptions made, without going into their backgrounds. But where he does go into detail of his deductions, Lawrence makes a lot of sense. For example Lawrence takes apart Pakistani habit of copying Turkey with ample reasoning; Turkey emerged as a sovereign and independent nation-state in wartime circumstances that assured instant national identity as opposed to Pakistan which was a result of power transfer to a political movement that had not yet established itself as a formal political party. Basically long on rhetoric and sentiment but short on the pragmatic methods of self-government.
Unfortunately, most current political parties haven't made much progress with the army still leading political parties when you compare both institutions.
For a history book, there is one glaring mistake. The creation of MQM has been mentioned in the era of Bhutto as well as Zia Ul Haque, with the correct date in Zia's era.
The first chapter presents a riveting comparison between Gandhi and Jinnah.
Gandhi was a populist who had little time for rule of law.
His success was not in the courtroom but in raising huge public rallies.
His aim was undermining the existing colonial laws.
His target audience were the illiterate and the semi-educated.
His mass rallies were able to mobilise and energise people.
One was the darling of international media.
Many Muslim leaders identified with Gandhi and his Congress party.
While Jinnah was a luminary who wanted to work within the existing law.
The courtroom was his main battle ground.
His aim was changing laws by logical deductions.
His target audience were the literati and the educated leadership.
Political education, in his opinion would require years not months.
He was deeply committed to constitutional principles and legal processes.
Jinnah was an enigma to the media.
Lawrence makes some astute observations like the start of Islamisation right after Independence. He also notes that the Islamic parties were and remain the number enemy of of Jinnah's version of Pakistan.
This is a classical history book which details the various events in Pakistani timeline with commentary. The style of commentary is rather presumptuous though where the author takes liberties with assumptions made, without going into their backgrounds. But where he does go into detail of his deductions, Lawrence makes a lot of sense. For example Lawrence takes apart Pakistani habit of copying Turkey with ample reasoning; Turkey emerged as a sovereign and independent nation-state in wartime circumstances that assured instant national identity as opposed to Pakistan which was a result of power transfer to a political movement that had not yet established itself as a formal political party. Basically long on rhetoric and sentiment but short on the pragmatic methods of self-government.
Unfortunately, most current political parties haven't made much progress with the army still leading political parties when you compare both institutions.
For a history book, there is one glaring mistake. The creation of MQM has been mentioned in the era of Bhutto as well as Zia Ul Haque, with the correct date in Zia's era.
April 28, 2017
The book gives an good overview of Pakistan and how its history has shaped the country that we see today. It was written quite well and keeps the reader interested in the different events of Pakistan's history. I recommend it to anyone looking to get a quick overview about the history with focus on different leaders that have governed Pakistan.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews