Before Taliban

Through the life stories of three Afghan political figures from recent decades, Nur Muhammad Taraki, Samiullah Safi, and Qazi Amin Waqad, David B. Edwards examines how the optimism about development and growth that marked Afghanistan in the 1960s gave way to the current period of conflict, ruin, and hopelessness.

Each of these men took an active part in the country's political contests. All wanted an Afghanistan that was fairer and more democratic, yet they pictured that future in sharply different ways. By the end, each had failed, and each was either killed or forced into exile.