Thomas Barfield has 2 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 2 narrators, with an average listener rating of 4.8★ across 12 ratings. The most-rated is Elite: Mostly Harmless.
Elite: Mostly Harmless
Summary
Written by Kate Russell under official license from the creators of, and based in the vast universe of, the seminal space trading computer game Elite: Dangerous. Commander Angel Rose, forced into a life of crime due to circumstances beyond her control, is determined to survive in the unforgiving void as a professional assassin. Will she be forced into the ignominy of moving back in with her parents when her efforts fail to leave her with credit-earning blood on her hands? After years of galactic travel, could Angel's destiny be to end up drinking cheap liquor in a bar in Slough? Follow Kate on her website: katerussell.co.uk. Music by Allen Stroud. Cover design by Heather Murphy. A Radio Theatre Workshop production for Fantastic Books Audio. All rights reserved.
©2014 Kate Russell (P)2015 Daniel Grubb
Afghanistan
Summary
Afghanistan traces the historic struggles and the changing nature of political authority in this volatile region of the world, from the Mughal Empire in the 16th century to the Taliban resurgence today. Thomas Barfield introduces listeners to the bewildering diversity of tribal and ethnic groups in Afghanistan, explaining what unites them as Afghans despite the regional, cultural, and political differences that divide them. He shows how governing these peoples was relatively easy when power was concentrated in a small dynastic elite, but how this delicate political order broke down in the 19th and 20th centuries when Afghanistan's rulers mobilized rural militias to expel first the British and later the Soviets. Armed insurgency proved remarkably successful against the foreign occupiers, but it also undermined the Afghan government's authority and rendered the country ever more difficult to govern as time passed. Barfield vividly describes how Afghanistan's armed factions plunged the country into a civil war, giving rise to clerical rule by the Taliban and Afghanistan's isolation from the world. He examines why the American invasion in the wake of September 11 toppled the Taliban so quickly, and how this easy victory lulled the United States into falsely believing that a viable state could be built just as easily. Afghanistan is essential listening for anyone who wants to understand how a land conquered and ruled by foreign dynasties for more than a thousand years became the "graveyard of empires" for the British and Soviets, and what the United States must do to avoid a similar fate.
©2010 Princeton University Press (P)2012 Audible, Inc.