From a small group of religious students formed in 1994, the Taliban quickly grew into a national movement that occupied all of Afghanistan. When the Americans overthrew the Taliban in 2001, the United States thought the regime had been defeated. Yet today, more than a decade later, the Taliban continue to wage a bloody insurgency.

In this extraordinary and compelling account of the rise, fall, and return of the Taliban, award-winning author James Fergusson presents the reality of the movement so often mischaracterized in the press while asking provocative yet necessary questions about the current strategy in Afghanistan.