Research Catalog

Title

The last warlord : the life and legend of Dostum, the Afghan warrior who led US Special Forces to topple the Taliban Regime / Brian Glyn Williams, PhD.

Author

Williams, Brian Glyn

Publication

• Chicago, Illinois : Chicago Review Press, [2013]
• ©2013

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xviii, 334 pages : color illustrations, maps; 24 cm

Summary

• "In The Last Warlord, scholar Brian Glyn Williams takes Westerners inside the world of general Abdul Rashid Dostum, one of the most powerful of the Afghan warlords who have dominated the country since the Soviet invasion. Based on lengthy interviews with Dostum and his family and subcommanders, as well as local chieftains, mullahs, elders, Taliban enemies and prisoners of war, and women's rights activists, The Last Warlord tells the story of Dostum's rise to power from peasant villager to the man who fought a long and bitter war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda fanatics who sought to repress his people. The book details how, after 9/11, the CIA contacted the mysterious Mongol warrior to help US Special Forces wage a covert, horse-mounted war in the mountains of Afghanistan that ended in a stunning victory; how Dostum was later marginalized by US and Afghan leaders; and how sensational media accounts have made him the object of rampant mythologizing. With the United States drawing down troops in 2014 and Dostum poised to re-enter the world stage to fight a resurgent Taliban, The Last Warlord provides important historical context to the controversy swirling around Afghanistan's warlord culture and is an essential contribution to the debate on Afghanistan's future"--
• "The first and only book to provide biographical details on Afghanistan's most notorious warlord who is likely to once again play a central role in fighting the Taliban when coalition troops withdraw in 2014"--

Subject

• Dūstum, ʻAbd al-Rashīd, 1954-
• Taliban
• Since 1989
• HISTORY / Military / Afghan War (2001-)
• Warlordism > Afghanistan > History
• BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Political
• Afghanistan > Politics and government > 1989-2001
• Afghanistan > Politics and government > 2001-

Genre/Form

• collective biographies.
• Biographies
• History
• Biographies.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 311-324) and index.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

The warlord of Mazar -- How to meet a warlord -- The approaching storm -- Raiders -- Last line of defense -- The evil comes to America -- Search for a plan -- Khoja Doko village, 1954 -- The first battles -- The soldier -- The traitor -- Khadija -- Conspiracies -- The warlord -- The coup -- Malik -- The Americans -- The offensive begins -- Interview with a warlord -- Epilogue.

ISBN

9781613748008 (hardback)

LCCN

^^2013008742

OCLC

• 829738859
• SCSB-11707435

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library