David B. Edwards traces the lives of three Afghan leaders - Nur Muhammad Taraki, Samiullah Safi and Qazi Amin Waqad - to explain how the promise of progress and prosperity that animated Afghanistan in the 1960s crumbled and became the present tragedy of discord, destruction and despair.

If you want to read one book to understand the background to the political conflicts in Afghanistan and the Taliban's rise to power, this is the book. Edwards tells the stories of three men--a Marxist politician, a tribal leader, and an Islamic militant--to explain the complex political culture of Afghanistan.