Afghan Napoleon - The Life of Ahmad Shah Massoud
Sandy Gall author Rory Stewart author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Haus Publishing
Published:7th Sep '21
Should be back in stock very soon
Confirmed reviews: 1) The Telegraph 2) Spectator 3) Literary Review 4) Asian Review of Books 5) Asian Affairs Journal 6) Royal Asiatic Society Journal The magazine The Diplomat will run a written interview.
Published on the 20th anniversary of Massoud's assassination, two days before the 9/11 attack, this is the first biography of Massoud published in over a decade.When the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the forces of resistance were disparate and divided mujahideen groups, as interested in fighting each other and competing for Western arms as opposing the Russians. The exception was Ahmed Shah Massoud, the military strategist and political operator who solidified the resistance and undermined the Russian occupation by leading its members to a series of defensive victories. Sandy Gall was embedded with Massoud during Soviet offences and reported on the war in Afghanistan for a number of years. He has now written an illuminating biography of this charismatic guerrilla commander, which contains excerpts from the surviving volumes of Massoud's diaries. Massoud's prolific diary-keeping was little known during his lifetime, and his entries detail crucial moments in his life and throw fascinating light on his struggles, both in the resistance and in his personal life. Born into an ostensibly liberalising Afghanistan in the 1960s, Massoud ardently opposed communism and Mohammed Daoud, Afghanistan's puppet leader. He quickly rose to prominence and distinguished himself by coordinating the defence of the Panjshir Valley against repeated Soviet offensives. As the occupation wore on, Massoud became the resistance's unifying force. Massoud's assassination in 2001 presaged the attack on the Twin Towers just two days later and it is widely believed to have been ordered by Osama bin Laden. Forever the underdog in a life dominated by conflict, Massoud's attempts to build political consensus in Afghanistan were ultimately frustrated. Despite that, he is recognised today as a national hero.
"Afghan Napoleon offers an overdue portrait of one of the most remarkable figures of the twentieth century. Napoleon tried to conquer the world; Massoud by contrast fought the world-scale Soviet empire to a stand still on behalf of his people from a tiny valley in Afghanistan. In this book we see, not just the daily nuts and bolts of his military genius but catch glimpses of the social graces and the warmth that made this man so beloved among his followers." -- Tamim Ansary, author of The Invention of Yesterday: A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection ; "The unputdownable story of an authentic Afghan hero by one of the greatest chroniclers of modern Afghanistan's travails, and occasional triumphs." -- Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, former British Ambassador to Afghanistan, and British Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan; "I can think of no one better than the legendary foreign correspondent Sandy Gall to tell the compelling story of Ahmad Shah Massoud's extraordinary life and death. . . . Gall weaves analysis, first-hand reporting and primary sources into a brilliant and important book." -- Jeremy Bowen ; "Ahmad Shah Massoud was one of the greatest military commanders of the 20th century and was instrumental in forcing the Soviets to retreat from Afghanistan in 1989. Yet, he is now barely known in the West. That will surely change as a result of Gall's authoritative, beautifully written and deeply reported biography of Massoud." -- Peter Bergen, author of The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden; "This is a remarkable book, both a coruscating memoir by Gall and a revealing insight into a guerrilla leader-one whose reputation ranks with the icons of revolutionary insurgency and whose thinking is here revealed in his own words." -- Hew Strachan; 'A remarkable and emotionally affecting portrait of one of the most successful and brilliant soldiers of the modern world and a magnificent statesman. Sandy Gall is himself a major figure of late-twentieth-century journalism, and his book is the best and most insightful I have read on modern Afghanistan.' John Simpson; ‘extraordinary story’ –The Telegraph.
ISBN: 9781913368227
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
368 pages