The Hollow Kingdom
₨995
ISIS and the CULT of JIHAD
Rs.995.00
DESCRIPTION
Governments across the world openly acknowledge the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as one of the greatest terrorist threats in history, greater even than Al Qaeda, which first set light to a global jihad. Never before has there been such a wealth of information, propaganda and counter-propaganda available on the subject, especially on the Internet. And yet, in all the noise, there’s confusion. This book draws on thorough research and rare interviews to deconstruct the founding ideology of ISIS and chart its growth: how it recruits, using the Dark Web to indoctrinate the disaffected and the emotionally vulnerable across the world; how it has spread globally, using violence as theatre and making secret pacts with cynical governments; and how it finances itself—through sale of oil, extortion and slave trade. The book also examines how this terrorist state is being dismantled by an unlikely coalition of forces from the Middle East and the West, even as it warns that the nationalist chauvinism and economic protectionism sweeping the world today could provide new fuel to ISIS and its ideology.
Rigorous and insightful, The Hollow Kingdom is a necessary read—a compelling mix of research and reportage.
Publisher: Folio Books
Binding: Paperback
Publishing date: June 2018
Pages: 264
Availability: Pre-order
Folio Suggests
No Fortunes to Tell
Rs. 595 Rs.297
REVIEWS
“Harris Khalique explores with self-contained mastery the contrasts between official and untold history; the almost magical crudity of poetical observation aspires here to heal the well-spring of common stories where customary meaning loses its grip and absurdity finally makes sense.”
Omar Pérez—Essayist, Editor (Son of Ernesto Che Guevara)
“In No Fortunes to Tell, the poet records his experience of the world with brutal candour. His poems speak with chill detachment of war and its horror, destitution and disease and the dehumanisation of the poor. Beneath the matter of fact tone, spare language and austerity of the writing, there is pain for the human lot. This is a poetry that moves even as it terrifies and shocks. It shuns lyricism because the truth is too bitter to bear prettification or musical colour. ”
Adrian A. Husain —Poet, Author of Desert Album and Italian Window, Renaissance scholar, known for his Politics and Genre in Hamlet
“No Fortunes to Tell opens windows into a mind, one determined to confront its hauntings. Harris Khalique pays his respects to the shades of events that frighten us, leave communities unsettled and provoke our most necessary acts of love. His meditations refract violence, each abstracting human need from a detailed portrait of sorrow.”
Kristin Dykstra—Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence, St Michael’s College, Vermont
“In precise, striking language Harris Khalique’s poems grapple with the great tragedies and moral questions of our time. He reveals Aleppo, Yemen and Waziristan as no reporter can, as only a poet can. A marsiya for our broken world.”Basharat Peer—Author Curfewed Night
Publisher: Folio Books
Division: Folio Poetry
Binding: Paperback
Rights: World
Availability: In Stock
A Promethean Vision
The Formation of Karl Marx’s Worldview
by Eric Rahim
Rs. 995 Rs. 695
DESCRIPTION
A Promethean Vision outlines the main intellectual stages in the development of Karl Marx’s theory of historical development, often referred to as historical materialism or the materialist conception of history. The book charts Marx’s journey from his early life as a Young Hegelian immersed in German philosophical tradition through his turn toward political economy. In Eric Rahim’s interpretation his worldview developed as a synthesis of his philosophical thinking (critique of Hegel and Feuerbach) with classical political economy of Adam Smith. The central point is that Marx’s worldview should be seen as a method for analysing historical development and not as a ‘historical-philosophical theory’ with a deterministic approach to the understanding of historical development.
REVIEWS
“As an account of how Marx came to develop his materialist conception of history I cannot think of a better one [book].”
– Professor David McLellan, Goldsmith’s College, University of London; Author of Karl Marx: His Life and Thought
‘This is a remarkably clear exposition of Marx’s vision of human development. Eric Rahim demonstrates that Marx’s materialist understanding of human development bears no relation to the crude deterministic caricatures offered by some of his critics. For Marx, Rahim argues, what each generation inherits from its predecessor contains the potential for further development. Realisation of this potential requires that human beings understand both the possibilities and constraints of their particular conjuncture and act on them. This is not straightforward. Advance is possible but it is not automatic or pre-determined.”
–Dr. Renee Prendergast, Queen’s University of Belfast; Co-editor of Contributions to the History of Economic Thought
“It is no accident that after the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, Marx’s Capital and Keynes’s General Theory returned to the bestseller list. Eric Rahim’s new volume, A Promethean Vision: The Formation of Marx’s Worldview, is an indispensable complement to a reading or re-reading of Capital. Rahim’s volume is an exemplary work of analysis and scholarship. It tells the reader where and what Marx was doing up to the writing of Capital. It sets out the historical and political environment in which Marx found himself and explains most clearly what his ideas were at each moment of time and how they evolved. The narrative is backed by detailed evidence and accounts of the interactions of Marx with his contemporaries and of their inter-related influence on one another. A striking feature of the volume is Rahim’s great ability to set out the essence of Marx’s ideas and breakthroughs.”
–Professor GC Harcourt, University of New South Wales; Author of Some Cambridge Controversies in the Theory of Capital
Rights: World excluding United Kingdom
Pakistan’s Political Parties
₨1,495Surviving between Dictatorship and Democracy
Edited by Mariam Mufti, Sahar Shafqat, and Niloufer Siddiqui
Rs. 1495
DESCRIPTION
Pakistan’s 2018 general elections marked the second successful transfer of power from one elected civilian government to another—a remarkable achievement considering the country’s history of dictatorial rule. Pakistan’s Political Parties examines how the civilian side of the state’s current regime has survived the transition to democracy, providing critical insight into the evolution of political parties in Pakistan and their role in developing democracies in general.Pakistan’s numerous political parties span the ideological spectrum, as well as represent diverse regional, ethnic, and religious constituencies. The essays in this volume explore the way in which these parties both contend and work with Pakistan’s military-bureaucratic establishment to assert and expand their power. Researchers use interviews, surveys, data, and ethnography to illuminate the internal dynamics and motivations of these groups and the mechanisms through which they create policy and influence state and society.
Pakistan’s Political Parties is a one-of-a-kind resource for diplomats, policymakers, journalists, and scholars searching for a comprehensive overview of Pakistan’s party system and its unlikely survival against an interventionist military, with insights that extend far beyond the region.
REVIEWS
“This is truly an important contribution to the literature on political parties and electoral considerations in Pakistan. There is nothing like it that currently exists.”
—Charles H. Kennedy, professor, Department of Political Science and International Relations and Director, Middle East and South Asia Program, Wake Forest University
“This is a long overdue, but essential, contribution to our understanding of Pakistan. With an impressive author list, this will become the go-to book on understanding political parties in Pakistan’s hybrid regime.”
—Katharine Adeney, Director of the University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute
“Pakistan’s Political Parties is a timely and vital contribution to the social science literature on political parties in south Asia . . . . It presents an exceptionally lucid and well-crafted analysis of major political parties in Pakistan, their role and functions in a nascent democracy, and the relationship of political parties to other institutions.”
—Kavita Khory, Professor of Politics, Mount Holyoke College
“This wonderful book is absolutely indispensable for understanding Pakistan’s democracy, and all of the main actors and interests involved. The various authors manage very effectively to combine deep knowledge of Pakistan’s political parties, social groups, and interests, with the comparative breadth to put everything into broader theoretical perspective.”
—Steven Wilkinson, Henry R. Luce Director, The Whitney & Betty MacMillan Center for International & Area Studies; Nilekani Professor of India & South Asian Studies; and professor of political science & international affairs, Yale University
Rights: Pakistan
A World Unveiled
₨1,495Joys and Jitters of Many Journeys
by Razi Azmi
Rs. 1,495
DESCRIPTION
A World Unveiled captures Razi Azmi’s many journeys spanning decades across Africa, Asia, North and South America, and Russia, all undertaken with something approaching religious zeal. This is a compelling travelogue with many elements: personal stories, adventures, social encounters, historical facts, geographical descriptions, anecdotes and more. The author shares not just his passion for travel and the thrill of his journeys but also the frustrations and annoyances that inevitably accompany the intrepid traveller: moments of ecstasy and excitement interspersed with frustrations, dangers and vagaries of visas. As Razi Azmi describes his fascinating trips in A World Unveiled, he seems to take you along with him to his numerous destinations.
REVIEWS
“Razi Azmi chronicles his world-wide adventures in the great and enduring tradition of travel writers from Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta to Richard Haliburton and Paul Theroux. A keen observer and meticulous penman, he records in fascinating detail his journeys from tiny specks of nations like Lesotho to the vast steppes of Russia and the wide Canadian prairies. Throughout, his descriptions are colourful and witty and evoke the very character of the lands and peoples he visits.”
– B. R. Burg, Former Professor, Arizona State University
“Of many reasons to read this book, three stand out in particular: Razi Azmi has been to hundreds of places most people will never get to; he’s talked to more people in more languages than most people ever will; and he has a sense of humour more profound than most travel writers.”
– Carl Pletsch, Professor Emeritus, University of Colorado
“Razi Azmi writes with empathy and respect for the lands, people and their cultures. I am particularly impressed by his detailed observations and descriptions of the people and places in Africa, the continent of my birth and growth. But it wasn’t until I read Razi’s travelogue that I realised how little I knew about my own continent.”
– Ali Tunne Godana, Kenyan Travel Enthusiast
“Razi Azmi, like me, was born with itchy feet, which took us far and away to different parts of the world. His accounts of India in particular—the places, the train odysseys, the bustling mood—are fascinating to read. I salute him for his travels and insightful narration of his experiences covering much of the world.”
– Sandip Hor, Indian Travel Writer and Photographer
“Razi Azmi gives us a poignant, simultaneous look at geographic, demographic and political landscapes. He’s a polyglot with as many interests and stories. Unlike accidental tourists, he follows an intentional course, with articulate conversations about both the structured and serendipitous. And he is fearless in doing so, following the George Packer model (the Atlantic): ‘A writer who’s afraid to tell people what they don’t want to hear has chosen the wrong trade.’ Azmi should never trade his trade; he demonstrates joy, courage and candour in his timely reflections .”
– Jerry Pattengale, Professor, Indiana Wesleyan University
“Packed with fascinating details and insights, A World Unveiled brings to life the infinity of meandering plains, the aromas escaping deep from within narrow bazaars. It is a gift for these times, when so much has changed for the intrepid and curious traveler alike.”
– Amna Zuberi, Pakistani Travel and Documentary Photographer
Publisher: Folio Books
Binding: Hardback
Release date: July 15, 2021
Rights: World
Pages: 336 including 21 maps and 22 photos
Availability: In Stock