Taliban - 3rd Edition by Ahmed Rashid (Paperback)

About the Book

"Taliban is a New York Times bestseller by the award-winning journalist Ahmed Rashid. Now considered a modern classic, the book provides rare insight into the history of the Taliban, their political movement, their leaders and their aims. This authoritative account is renowned for being able to explain one of the world's most extreme organizations from their inception in northern Pakistan in the early 1990s to their rise to power. In doing so, Rashid closely details their impact on Afghanistan, the Middle East and Central Asia, and how and why the Taliban spread, including their relationship with both Al-Qaeda and the U.S. This third edition marks twenty years since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and the author adds a new introduction to reflect on how the group regained their strength, the humanitarian crisis, and what Taliban rule is likely to mean for the region and the world."--

Book Synopsis

A #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

Following the U.S-Taliban peace deal of February 2020 - and the U.S's promised withdrawal from Afghanistan - the Taliban began terrorizing Afghan security forces, civilians and the government in Kabul. By August 2021, the group had seized control of the entire country.

Taliban is a New York Times bestseller by the award-winning journalist Ahmed Rashid. Now considered a modern classic, the book provides rare insight into the history of the Taliban, their political movement, their leaders and their aims. This authoritative account is renowned for being able to explain one of the world's most extreme organizations from their inception in northern Pakistan in the early 1990s to their rise to power. In doing so, Rashid closely details their impact on Afghanistan, the Middle East and Central Asia, and how and why the Taliban spread, including their relationship with both Al-Qaeda and the U.S.

The book has sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide and has been translated into over 40 languages. This third edition marks twenty years since the U.S. invaded Afghanistan and the author adds a new introduction to reflect on how the group regained their strength, the humanitarian crisis, and what Taliban rule is likely to mean for the region and the world.

Review Quotes

"[Rashid is] Pakistan's best and bravest reporter." - Christopher Hitchens, Vanity Fair

"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

"The author describes the insights he has gained, through personal experience of Afghanistan over the past decade, into the secretive and bizarre Taliban leadership." - Richard Beeston, New Statesman

"Read this remarkable book and the bewildering complexity of Afghan politics and the deadly over-spill of chaos, narcotics and sectarian violence into the surrounding region will become clear." - Patrick Seale, Sunday Times

"The first credible account of the rise to power of the Taliban." - Tariq Ali, New Left Review

"Rashid has a feel for the characters in this imbroglio, who are as outlandish as any from the old Great Game." - Rupert Edis, Sunday Telegraph

"the book they are all reading." - The Guardian

"[An] excellent study" - Financial Times

"It took our political classes an unconscionable time to wake up to the importance of Ahmed Rashid's definitive study of the Taliban. The book has been a phenomenal success." - The Independent

"a chilling and masterly study of the Taliban." - Times Literary Supplement

"It is the contention of Mr. Rashid's very capable book on the Taliban that the outside world ignores Afghanistan at its peril" - James Buchan, Evening Standard

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

"Ahmed Rashid's book describes the stuff that Bond [films] are made of. Warring tribes, clashing empires, fanatics with dreams of world domination, violence and sex. . If anyone understands the place Rashid does." - Jason Burke, Observer

"Rashid tells a complicated story clearly. He places the rise of the Taliban in the context of the Afghan civil war, the energy polices of the Central Asian republics and the interests of American, Saudi and Pakistani intelligence services." - Robin Banerji, Daily Telegraph

"This is a riveting, balanced and well-informed book." - International Herald Tribune

"In this excellent, highly readable book, Ahmed Rashid succeeds in mixing detailed analysis not only with anecdote but also with a heartfelt sympathy for innocent peoples who for decades have been caught up in games of international rivalry and who appear fated to remain forever in a Hobbesian state of war." - Roger Howard, Spectator

"Rashid has written the most thorough account of the Taliban to date, and has enclosed it within a history of Afghanistan relating back to the Great Game." - Neil Quilliam, BRISMES Newsletter

"Thanks to Ahmed Rashid's analysis of the manoeuvrings of companies and governments, oil executives now have an up-to-date bible. and those interested in the new Turkic republics can get a sense of where these mysterious entities may be heading." - Michael Church, Independent

"[Taliban] is said to have had a deep influence on Tony Blair's current thinking. It has also become the focus of intensive diplomatic scrutiny as US policy makers scramble to formulate plans for a stable regime to succeed the Taliban." - Timur Moon, Sunday Express

"The most important book of the year." - Bianca Jagger 'A Good Read', BBC Radio 4

"This is a fine book - erudite, concise, surefooted, packed with information and insightful, easy to read." - Dilip Hiro, Middle East International

"Required reading not only for specialists, but for anyone who wishes to learn how the wider world
contributed to the emergence of a parish regime from the wreckage of Afghans' courageous struggle against the armed forces of the Soviet Union." - William Maley, The World Today

"[A] valuable and informative work." - Richard Bernstein, New York Times

"Ahmed Rashid is to be complimented for this factual, readable and thought provoking work." - Asian News

"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

"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

About the Author

Ahmed Rashid is a Pakistani journalist who reports for the BBC Online, The New York Times, The Financial Times, The New York Review of Books, Spain's El Mundo and newspapers in Pakistan. He broadcasts regularly with the BBC, CNN and other international news organisations. He has twice been selected for the list of 'Top 100 Global Thinkers' by Foreign Policy. He has been covering the wars in Afghanistan, as well as the wars in Pakistan and Tajikistan, since 1979. He is the author of Descent into Chaos and Jihad.