Overview

This #1 New York Times best seller remains the most informative and objective account of the Taliban available This modern classic brings the shadowy world of the Taliban and its impact on Afghanistan, the Middle East, and Central Asia into sharp focus. Ahmed Rashid offers an authoritative account of the Taliban's rise to power, the effects of changing American attitudes toward it, and the new faces of Islamic fundamentalism, and explains why Afghanistan has become the world's center for international terrorism. This edition, updated in view of the Taliban's resurgence and sudden, renewed purchase on Afghanistan's major cities, explores how the group regained its strength and broadened its geographical reach. It is a must-read for anyone seeking to understand the events that unfolded in 2021 following America's withdrawal from the country after twenty years of war.

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9780300266825

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Reviews

Praise for the First Edition of Taliban: A fabulous piece of journalism. --Sebastian Junger, author of The Perfect Storm and Fire The best book on the Taliban. --L. Carl Brown, Foreign Affairs [A] valuable and informative work. --Richard Bernstein, New York Times An excellent political and historical account of the movement's rise to power. --Katha Pollitt, TheNation Virtually the only informed work on the men who, since 1994, have ruled almost all of Afghanistan. . . . [An] indispensable book. --Steve Wasserman, Los Angeles Times Book Review A must read. --Larry P. Goodson, New York Times [A] supremely insightful book about Afghanistan's Taliban regime. . . . Rashid bases his account on detailed reporting and travel throughout Afghanistan and interviews with most of the Taliban's elusive top leadership. As a narrative, it is gripping. . . . Rashid's book is superbly reported, a window into a world that remains largely closed to American eyes. --Shankar Vedantam, Philadelphia Inquirer Rashid's densely detailed reportage portrays a country in ruins and the people who seek to control it. . . . Anyone contemplating new adventures in Afghanistan--whether to save its women from persecution, rescue the state from further fragmentation or save themselves from terrorist backlash--might first consult Rashid's book. --Paula R. Newberg, San Francisco Chronicle The standard work in English on the Taliban. --Christopher de Bellaigue, New York Review of Books [A] thorough, authoritative exegesis. --Peter Bergen, Washington Post Book World

Author Information

Ahmed Rashid was a correspondent for the Far Eastern Economic Review for more than twenty years, covering Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. He now writes for BBC Online, the New York Times, and other newspapers. He has been covering Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Tajikistan since 1979. He is the author of Descent into Chaos: The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia and Jihad: The Rise of Militant Islam in Central Asia.

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