Summary and Reviews of Taliban by Ahmed Rashid

Media Reviews

Foreign Affairs - L. Carl Brown An excellent study by a journalist who has covered Afghanistan for over 20 years, knows all the important Afghan leaders and reads widely from scholarly works and the media. . . . Rashid illuminates the struggle for control of Afghanistan by great and lesser powers-not just the United States, Russia, Pakistan, and Iran but also Afghanistan' s newly independent Central Asian neighbors-and demonstrates how little they have to show for their efforts.

Jewish Herald Voice Rashid provides and incredible history of the Taliban and Afghanistan. . . . His book is enjoyable, highly informative, and provides information and insight into a culture that will impact us all.

Philadelphia Inquirer - Shankar Vedantam [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.

Salon.com - Jonathan Groner Rashid marshals the vast amount of information he has accumulated over decades of covering the area into a long, sad story and tells it with finesse. His book is a gripping account of one of the horror stories of post-Cold War politics.

San Francisco Chronicle - Paula R. Newberg 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.

The Nation - Katha Pollitt An excellent political and historical account of the movement' s rise to power.

The New York Times - Richard Bernstein The broader story here is powerful. Mr. Rashid' s book is essentially a history of the destruction of one of the more ruggedly enduring Central Asia cultures. It depicts how Afghanistan, which survived the British-Russian Great Game of the 19th century, has been reduced to a fragmented, failed state in a vicious new Great Game at the end of the 20th. . . . One learns . . . a great deal from Mr. Rashid' s book about the nature of local Central Asian politics and the consequences of interference by outside powers. . . . [A] valuable and informative work.

Booklist Rashid . . . brings urgency to a conflict in Central Asia of which most Americans and many Europeans are mostly ignorant. He reveals a nation with a rich culture of contradictions and complexities that have never been fathomed by its numerous conquerors.

Library Journal [Rashid] covers the origin and rise of the Taliban, its concepts of Islam on questions of gender roles and drugs, and the importance of the country to the development of energy resources in the region. . . . A lucid and thoroughly researched account, it is recommended for academic and most public libraries.