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Some would have you believe that America’s history begins with its revolution. 

1776.

Others have painstakingly proven why it should be moved back even earlier, closer to the date of when the early immigrants committed this country’s original sin. 

1619. 

It seems there’s always a choice in America, even with history. But in countries like Afghanistan, the answer has already been chiseled into stone. This is the place where countries go to die, it is a graveyard of empires.

This moniker has been cited so many times and for so long that it’s unclear who first said it. Even the Afghan community will recite this pride. But what a title like this fails to convey is that while this might be a country responsible for the many tombstones of others, it very well is also a moratorium of progress for itself, a state in perpetual arrested development.

This is also a cemetery for countless Afghans who, in more modern times, failed to see any empire rise.

Why do some countries get to debate their histories while others have their legacy determined by outsiders? And what gets lost along the way?

Show Notes: 

1. [00:30] “The Layers of Heaven” by Jovica

2. [00:45] The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

3. [00:50] The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis

4. [01:15] Re: Is it hard to have fun when you have a library card?

5. [01:20] More on Jamil Jan Kochai (@jamiljankochai)

   • Read his book, 99 Nights in Logar

   • Read his New Yorker story

6. [01:35] The renovation project on the West Sacramento Public Library

7. [02:35] Listen to Part 1 here

8. [02:50] A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini

   • And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini 

9. [03:10] Sea Prayer by Khaled Hosseini 

10. [03:15] “Mirrored Seduction” by Walt Adams

11. [04:40] SparkNotes for The Kite Runner 

12. [05:05] The Kite Runner movie trailer

13. [07:50] “Attan-Khatme Zanzeri”

    • s/o to the original “afghan-music.com” 

14. [09:50]  Books here:

    • Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics by Martin Ewans

    • The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Lemmon

    • Killing the Cranes: A Reporter's Journey through Three Decades of War in Afghanistan by Edward Girardet

    • Taliban: Militant Islam, Oil and Fundamentalism in Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid

    • Zinky Boys: Soviet Voices from the Afghanistan War by Svetlana Alexievichy

    • Directorate S: The C.I.A. and America's Secret Wars in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Steve Cole

    • Horse Soldiers: The Extraordinary Story of a Band of US Soldiers Who Rode to Victory in Afghanistan by Doug Stanton

15. [11:55] “Walk Like an Egyptian” cover by The Cleverlys

16. [12:20] Light reading on Napoleon’s conquest of Egypt

    • Related reading here

17. [12:35] French Suite No. 2 in C Minor

18. [13:20] Light reading on the late Edward Said

19. [13:30] A recent review of Orientalism by Edward Said

20. [13:45] “Choose Your Outfit” by Colors of Illusion

21. [14:10] Edward Said with the Media Education Foundation in 1998

22. [15:20] More on Farhad Azad and afghanmagazine.com

23. [16:10] “Over the Dunes” by Jon Sumner

24. [16:55] Light reading on Nader Shah

25. [17:10] Light reading on the Pashtuns

    • More on Pashtunwali

    • Light reading on Ahmad Shah Durrani

26. [20:05] “Portobello Road” by David Celeste

27. [20:30] More on Dr. Nivi Manchanda (@ManchandaNivi)

    • Her blog on the disorder of things

    • Her book, Imagining Afghanistan: the History and Politics of Imperial Knowledge 

    • A Q&A on her book

28. [21:00] Light reading on the British East India Company

29. [21:10] Light reading on the geopolitical context of the 1800s

30. [21:50] An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul, and its Dependencies in Persia, Tartary, and India

31. [22:30] Some of Dr. Manchanda’s other writings

    • “The Imperial Sociology of the ‘Tribe’ in Afghanistan”

    • “Queering the Pashtun: Afghansexuality in the homo-nationalist imaginary”

32. [23:45] “Fairy’s Fear” by Deskant 

33. [26:30] “Leavy Quickly” by Alan Carlson-Green

34. [26:35] Light reading on the US-Afghan war

35. [26:50] Light reading on the Great Game

36. [27:00] “Oh Motherland” by Sight of Wonders 

37. [27:25] “Devil’s Disgrace” by Deskant

38. [27:35] Light reading on the British Intelligence officer who coined the term “The Great Game”   

    • Related: A 1901 review of Rudyard Kipling’s Kim

39. [29:05] See 'Remnants of An Army’

    • Read some backstory of the painting here

40. [29:30] Light reading on William Brydon

41. [29:45] Technically, it was the winter of 1841-42, but more reading on that retreat here.

42. [31:20] Light reading of that first occupation in 1842

43. [31:25] ”Alive Without Breathing” by Deskant

44. [32:30] Light reading on Dost Muhammad Khan’s reflections on the British empire

    • More on First Anglo Afghan War (1839-42)

45. [32:50] Light reading on Sher Ali Khan 

    • More on the Second Anglo Afghan War (1878-80)

46. [33:50] Light reading on Abdur-Rahman Khan (aka The Iron Emir)

    • Light reading on the state of the Hazara population

    • Light reading on the Hazara genocide of the 1890s

    • More reading on the Hazara genocide

    • More reading on the Hazaras

    • His rationale of his brutal reign

47. [33:55] “Pepper Seeds” by Rune Dale

48. [35:40] News of Afghanistan’s latest railroad here and here

49. [36:05] Light reading on the assassination of Habibullah Khan

50. [37:20] “Crusade” by Max Anson

51. [37:50] Light reading on the Third Anglo Afghan War (1919)

    • Light reading on Ammanullah Khan

    • Light reading on the bombings of Kabul

    • Light reading on Afghan Independence Day

    • Related: Independence movements in Egypt, Ireland and Malta

    • Light reading on the Durand Line

52. [39:35] More on Wazhmah Osman

    • And her book: Television and the Afghan Culture Wars

    • And her film: Postcards from Tora Bora

53. [41:40] Light reading on Khushal Khan Khattak

54. [44:00] “Nothing in This World” by Telmo Telmo