Invisible History: Afghanistan's Untold Story - Softcover

Paul Fitzgerald; Elizabeth Gould

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0872864944 ISBN 13: 9780872864948

Publisher: City Lights Publishers, 2009

Synopsis

Despite official declarations, the war in Afghanistan is far from over; in fact, it’s escalating. Seven years after 9/11, the Taliban continue to regroup, attack, and claim influence over most of the region. This book presents a fresh, comprehensive analysis of Afghanistan’s political history that begins at the roots of tribal leadership and ultimately emphasizes our present political moment and the impact of ongoing US military intervention.

Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould, a husband and wife team, first went to Afghanistan in 1981 and have reported for CBS News, Nightline, and The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour. Their documentary Between Three Worlds was broadcast by PBS.

About this title

About the Author

Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould, a husband and wife team, began their experience in Afghanistan when they were the first American journalists to acquire permission to enter behind Soviet lines in 1981 for CBS News and produced a documentary, Afghanistan Between Three Worlds, for PBS. In 1983 they returned to Kabul with Harvard Negotiation project director Roger Fisher for ABC Nightline and contributed to the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour. They have continued to research, write and lecture about the long-term run-up that led to the US invasion of Afghanistan.

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Journalists Fitzgerald and Gould do yeoman's labor in clearing the fog and laying bare American failures in Afghanistan in this deeply researched, cogently argued and enormously important book. The authors demonstrate how closely American actions are tied to past miscalculations—and how U.S. policy has placed Afghans and Americans in grave danger. Long at cultural crossroads, Afghanistan's location poised the country to serve as a fragile buffer between rival empires. Great Britain's 1947 creation of an arbitrary and indefensible border between Afghanistan and the newly minted Pakistan from the Afghan point of view... has always been the problem, but particularly after 9/11 American policymakers have paid scant attention to the concerns of Afghans, preferring to shoehorn an imagined Afghanistan into U.S. power paradigms. The United States is in a fight for its life, not because of [9/11]... but because of the way America responded.... That response was at once wildly exaggerated, dangerously reckless, and... ineffective, the authors argue, calling on the incoming president to make radical changes. Osama is not beating the United States.... The United States is beating itself, and beating itself badly. (Jan.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: City Lights Publishers
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0872864944
• ISBN 13: 9780872864948
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 300