"Hanifi's book provides an important contribution to our historical understanding of nineteenth century Afghanistan. There is no work that has mined the colonial archives to provide such a detailed examination of the role of trade, markets, and finance in the problematic process of Afghan state-building. Given current interest in Afghanistan, the book has topicality—and it raises important questions, particularly with regard to the intersections between the history of markets and the history of colonialism, that will be of wide interest to historians."—David Gilmartin, North Carolina State University "Hanifi presents what many have erroneously thought to be a simple and straightforward story in a new light. Covering material that has been largely unexplored up to now, he ties Afghanistan's robust history into the global processes shaping the modern world. This is a highly original, innovative, and engaging work."—Benjamin D. Hopkins, George Washington University "A brilliant revisionist study that argues that the conventional view of Afghanistan as a model of resistance to colonial power is a myth and that in reality Afghanistan was from the outset a 'colonial construct' whose economic institutions, in particular its commercial and monetary policies, were determined by policies over which it had little or no control. Students of Afghan history will never approach it in quite the same way again."—Robert D. McChesney, New York University