Overview

The American Government invested millions in Helmand, Afghanistan in the 1950s and 1960s to transform the barren desert into a veritable oasis. It became the largest international development effort after the Marshall Plan. 'Little America' was the name for this specific region, first used in the 1940s by Afghanis themselves. Four decades later in 2009, the region was again the focus of the US efforts in the country, as waves of Marines descended upon the Helmand River Valley. In this extraordinarily insightful, illuminating book, Rajiv Chandrasekaran focuses on southern Afghanistan in the year of Obama's surge. Little America is a story of the long arc of American involvement, and of the campaign to salvage a victory in southern Afghanistan on Obama's watch., and reveals the epic tug of war that occurred between the president and a military that, once on the ground, increasingly went its own way. This political battle's profound ramifications for the region and the world are laid bare through a cast of fascinating characters - disillusioned and inept diplomats, frustrated soldiers, headstrong officers - who played a part in the process of pumping millions of dollars of American money and soldiers into Afghan nation-building. He addresses the British involvement around Kandahar prior to the arrival of the US Marines, and reveals the uneasy - and, at times, openly hostile - relationship between the United States and Britain as they began in 2009 to share responsibility for Helmand. What emerges is a detailed picture of unsavoury compromise - warlords who were to be marginalised were suddenly embraced, the Karzai family transformed from foe to friend, fighting corruption no longer a top priority - and a venture that has become unsustainable in every way: politically, financially, and strategically. As in his award-winning Imperial Life in the Emerald City, by bringing to life a corner of a conflict and Chandrasekaran reveals the bigger story of the war. Has the war in Afghanistan been worth the money spent and bloodshed? Through vivid, on-the-ground storytelling, Little America takes readers toward an answer in a way no other book on Afghanistan has.

Full Product Details

Author:   Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN:  

9781408830079

ISBN 10:   1408830078
Pages:   384
Publication Date:   05 July 2012
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   To order  
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.

Table of Contents

Reviews

Vital reading ... comprehensive, perceptive and detailed work ... Little America is powerful and important and should be read by anyone interested in this on-going and deeply depressing war Jason Burke, Observer A handbook on how not to run a foreign war ... the book tells its story extremely well Max Hastings, Sunday Times An enthralling examination of the failures of American decision-making in Afghanistan ... engrossing and sharply reported ... as an examination of the failings of American decision-making it is second to none. **** Daily Telegraph Chandrasekaran is at his observant best when chronicling the absurdities of the State Department bureaucracy as it went to war in Kabul ... the book is effectively a critique of US policy and performance, and he makes a nuanced and convincing case Guardian

Author Information

Author Website:   http://www.bloomsbury.com/Authors/details.aspx?tpid=9465

Rajiv Chandrasekaran is an assisting managing editor of the Washington Post, where he has worked since 1994. He previously served the Post as a bureau chief in Baghdad, Cairo and Southeast Asia, and as a correspondent covering the war in Afghanistan. He recently completed a term as journalist-in-residence at the International Reporting Project at the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies, and was a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center. He is the author of Imperial Life in the Emerald City, which won the 2007 Samuel Johnson Prize. He lives in Washington, D.C.

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Author Website:   http://www.bloomsbury.com/Authors/details.aspx?tpid=9465

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