19 must-read politics books like The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left by Hassan Abbas

Cover of The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left by Hassan Abbas

The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

By: Hassan Abbas

4.17

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

The first account of the new Taliban—showing who they are, what they want, and how they differ from…

If you liked the politics plot in The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left by Hassan Abbas , here is a list of 19 books like this:

Cover of The Fur Hat by Vladimir Voinovich, Susan Brownsberger

1. The Fur Hat

By: Vladimir Voinovich , Susan Brownsberger

3.71

Format: 656 pages, Paperback

In this satire of Soviet life, an insecure but much-published novelist, Yefim Rakhlin, learns that … read more

Similar categories in Vladimir Voinovich's The Fur Hat book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

  • politics
Cover of Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS by Joby Warrick

2. Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS

By: Joby Warrick

3.64

Format: None pages, ebook

Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Joby Warrick reveals how the strain of militant Islam now raising i… read more

Similar categories in Joby Warrick's Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

  • history
  • islam
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • terrorism
Cover of Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East by Michael B. Oren

3. Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East

By: Michael B. Oren

4.61

Format: 192 pages, Paperback

Though it lasted for only six tense days in June, the 1967 Arab-Israeli war never really ended. Eve… read more

Similar categories in Michael B. Oren's Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
Cover of No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes by Anand Gopal

4. No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes

By: Anand Gopal

3.94

Format: 255 pages, Hardcover

Pulitzer Prize in General Nonfiction finalist National Book Award in Nonfiction finalist Helen Bern… read more

Similar categories in Anand Gopal's No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

  • asia
  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction

5. Towards Understanding Islam

By: Abul A'la Maududi

4.17

Format: None pages,

A simple and comprehensive introduction to Islam. 'My purpose in writing this book has been to prov… read more

Similar categories in Abul A'la Maududi's Towards Understanding Islam book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

6. Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion

By: Sam Harris

3.80

Format: 220 pages, Hardcover

For the millions of Americans who want spirituality without religion, Sam Harris's new book is a gu… read more

Similar categories in Sam Harris's Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

Cover of A Short History of Russia: How the World's Largest Country Invented Itself, from the Pagans to Putin by Mark Galeotti

7. A Short History of Russia: How the World's Largest Country Invented Itself, from the Pagans to Putin

By: Mark Galeotti

3.88

Format: 224 pages, Hardcover

Russia’s epic and dramatic story told in an accessible, lively and short form, using the country's … read more

Similar categories in Mark Galeotti's A Short History of Russia: How the World's Largest Country Invented Itself, from the Pagans to Putin book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
"History always wins."

-Mark Galeotti, A Short History of Russia: How the World's Largest Country Invented Itself, from the Pagans to Putin

"As ever, though, facts take second place when it comes to building narratives of power and authority"

-Mark Galeotti, A Short History of Russia: How the World's Largest Country Invented Itself, from the Pagans to Putin

Cover of Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives by Siddharth Kara

8. Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

By: Siddharth Kara

4.37

Format: 288 pages, Hardcover

The revelatory New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestseller, shortlisted for the Financial Times… read more

Similar categories in Siddharth Kara's Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
"Now you understand how people like us work?"

-Siddharth Kara, Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

"Nothing looks the same after a trip to the Congo. The world back home no longer makes sense. It is difficult to reconcile how it even inhabits the same planet. Neatly arranged mountains of vegetables…"

-Siddharth Kara, Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

"Cobalt mining is the slave farm perfected. The cost of labor has been nullified through the degradation of Africans at the bottom of an economic chain that purports to exonerate all participants of a…"

-Siddharth Kara, Cobalt Red: How the Blood of the Congo Powers Our Lives

Cover of The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History by Serhii Plokhy

9. The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History

By: Serhii Plokhy

4.30

Format: 376 pages, Hardcover

An authoritative history of Europe’s largest military conflict since World War II, from the New Yor… read more

Similar categories in Serhii Plokhy's The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
"Despite its imperial roots, the current war is being waged in a new international environment defined by the proliferation of nuclear weapons, the disintegration of the post–Cold War international or…"

-Serhii Plokhy, The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History

Cover of Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think by Hans Rosling

10. Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

By: Hans Rosling

4.36

Format: 342 pages, Hardcover

Factfulness: The stress-reducing habit of only carrying opinions for which you have strong supporti… read more

Similar categories in Hans Rosling's Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
"Free access to data doesn’t turn into knowledge without effort"

-Hans Rosling, Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

"Something frightening poses a perceived risk. Something dangerous poses a real risk."

-Hans Rosling, Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

"We like to believe that things happen because someone wanted them to, that individuals have power and agency: otherwise, the world feels unpredictable, confusing, and frightening."

-Hans Rosling, Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

"Does saying "things are improving" imply that everything is fine, and we should all relax and not worry? No, not at all. Is it helpful to have to choose between bad and improving? Definitely not. It'…"

-Hans Rosling, Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think

Cover of The Making of the Modern Middle East: A Personal History by Jeremy Bowen

11. The Making of the Modern Middle East: A Personal History

By: Jeremy Bowen

4.38

Format: 465 pages, Kindle Edition

A Sunday Times Paperback of the YearA Spectator and New Statesman Book of the Year‘An illuminating … read more

Similar categories in Jeremy Bowen's The Making of the Modern Middle East: A Personal History book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
Cover of Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East by Kim Ghattas

12. Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East

By: Kim Ghattas

4.40

Format: 400 pages, Hardcover

Black Wave is a paradigm-shifting recasting of the modern history of the Middle East, telling the l… read more

Similar categories in Kim Ghattas's Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

  • politics
  • history
  • islam
  • nonfiction
"Beyond the headlines about war and death, the region is alive with music, art, books, theater, social entrepreneurship, advocacy, libraries, cafes, bookshops, poetry, and so much more, as old and you…"

-Kim Ghattas, Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East

"If Beirut was the supermarket of the left in the 1970s, where Marxists, communists, Egyptians, Iraqis, and all the Palestinian factions debated and theorized, published and drank in bars arguing over…"

-Kim Ghattas, Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East

"Every king had tried to put his imprint on the city and the mosque; some were worse than others. King Faisal had been a parsimonious man and the expansion works reflected as much—measured and reasona…"

-Kim Ghattas, Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East

"Although our countries have been changed by the hegemonizing influences of both Iran and Saudi Arabia, the headlines in the Western media have always reduced matters of extraordinary depth and comple…"

-Kim Ghattas, Black Wave: Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the Forty-Year Rivalry That Unraveled Culture, Religion, and Collective Memory in the Middle East

Cover of The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War by Craig Whitlock

13. The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War

By: Craig Whitlock

4.26

Format: 368 pages, Hardcover

A Washington Post Best Book of 2021 The #1 New York Times bestselling investigative story of how th… read more

Similar categories in Craig Whitlock's The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
"To reinforce the message, Obama administration officials touted statistics that distorted what was really happening on the ground. The Bush administration had done the same, but Obama staffers in the…"

-Craig Whitlock, The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War

"Ryan Crocker, who served as the top U.S. diplomat in Kabul under both Bush and Obama, said the gusher of contracts to support U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan virtually guaranteed that extortion, …"

-Craig Whitlock, The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War

Cover of The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma by Mustafa Suleyman

14. The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma

By: Mustafa Suleyman

3.86

Format: 332 pages, Hardcover

A warning of the unprecedented risks that AI and other fast-developing technologies pose to global … read more

Similar categories in Mustafa Suleyman's The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the Twenty-first Century's Greatest Dilemma book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

  • politics
  • nonfiction
Cover of Why We're Polarized by Ezra Klein

15. Why We're Polarized

By: Ezra Klein

4.22

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

Discover how American politics became a toxic system, why we participate in it, and what it means f… read more

Similar categories in Ezra Klein's Why We're Polarized book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
"Unfortunately, the term “identity politics"

-Ezra Klein, Why We're Polarized

"The key idea here is “negative partisanship"

-Ezra Klein, Why We're Polarized

"So here, then, is the last fifty years of American politics summarized: we became more consistent in the party we vote for not because we came to like our party more—indeed, we’ve come to like the pa…"

-Ezra Klein, Why We're Polarized

"The political media is biased, but not toward the Left or Right so much as toward loud, outrageous, colorful, inspirational, confrontational. It is biased toward the political stories and figures who…"

-Ezra Klein, Why We're Polarized

Cover of The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017 by Rashid Khalidi

16. The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017

By: Rashid Khalidi

4.50

Format: 336 pages, Hardcover

A landmark history of one hundred years of war waged against the Palestinians from the foremost US … read more

Similar categories in Rashid Khalidi's The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler-Colonial Conquest and Resistance, 1917-2017 book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
Cover of How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy by John J. Mearsheimer

17. How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy

By: John J. Mearsheimer

3.88

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

A groundbreaking examination of a central question in international Do states act rationally?   To… read more

Similar categories in John J. Mearsheimer's How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
Cover of The Sister: The Extraordinary Story of Kim Yo Jong, The Most Powerful Woman in North Korea by Sung-Yoon Lee

18. The Sister: The Extraordinary Story of Kim Yo Jong, The Most Powerful Woman in North Korea

By: Sung-Yoon Lee

3.52

Format: 304 pages, Hardcover

The onset of Covid-19 has coincided with the dramatic rise of a young woman called Kim Yo Jong in N… read more

Similar categories in Sung-Yoon Lee's The Sister: The Extraordinary Story of Kim Yo Jong, The Most Powerful Woman in North Korea book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

  • history
  • asia
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • terrorism
Cover of The Perfect Weapon: How the Cyber Arms Race Set the World Afire by David E. Sanger

19. The Perfect Weapon: How the Cyber Arms Race Set the World Afire

By: David E. Sanger

4.26

Format: 384 pages, Hardcover

From the premiere New York Times Washington correspondent, a stunning and incisive look into how cy… read more

Similar categories in David E. Sanger's The Perfect Weapon: How the Cyber Arms Race Set the World Afire book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
Cover of A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East's Long War by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

20. A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East's Long War

By: Ghaith Abdul-Ahad

4.27

Format: 432 pages, Hardcover

An award-winning journalist’s powerful portrait of his native Baghdad, the people of Iraq, and twen… read more

Similar categories in Ghaith Abdul-Ahad's A Stranger in Your Own City: Travels in the Middle East's Long War book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

  • politics
  • history
  • nonfiction
Cover of The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left by Hassan Abbas

21. The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

By: Hassan Abbas

4.17

Format: 320 pages, Hardcover

The first account of the new Taliban—showing who they are, what they want, and how they differ from… read more

Similar categories in Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left book and Hassan Abbas's The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left

  • history
  • islam
  • asia
  • politics
  • nonfiction
  • terrorism

17 best-selling history books like The Return of the Taliban: Afghanistan after the Americans Left by Hassan Abbas

Transform Your Habits

Black Flags: The Rise of ISIS

Joby Warrick

3.64

Transform Your Habits

Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East

Michael B. Oren

4.61

Transform Your Habits

No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes

Anand Gopal

3.94

Transform Your Habits

A Short History of Russia: How the World's Largest Country Invented Itself, from the Pagans to Putin

Mark Galeotti

3.88

View all the books

14 best-selling audiobook books like The Sister: The Extraordinary Story of Kim Yo Jong, The Most Powerful Woman in North Korea by Sung-Yoon Lee

Transform Your Habits

North Korea Confidential: Private Markets, Fashion Trends, Prison Camps, Dissenters and Defectors

Daniel Tudor , James Pearson

3.68

Transform Your Habits

Flowers of Fire: The Inside Story of South Korea's Feminist Movement and What It Means for Women's Rights Worldwide

Hawon Jung

4.35

Transform Your Habits

Waiting to Be Arrested at Night: A Uyghur Poet's Memoir of China's Genocide

Tahir Hamut Izgil

4.31

Transform Your Habits

The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine: From Zionism to Intifadas and the Struggle for Peace (The Shortest History Series)

Michael Scott-Baumann

4.12

View all the books

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