Christian Caryl

Twenty-five years ago we saw the rise of militant Islam with Khomeini in Iran and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the ascent of Thatcherism in England, and the extreme Right gaining traction in the U.S. via Reagan and Christian Fundamentalists. 1979 was truly a pivotal year and somehow we have survived the pronounced shift to the more militant ideological global shift. The aftereffects are still being felt with Iran as a borderline renegade state and regional troublemaker, Afghanistan in turmoil, and the Right still controlling the tone of the political and economic dialogue in America.
Caryl does an excellent job weaving the intricate web of scenarios together and how so much of the commotion was viewed through the lens of the Cold War. This proved to be a faulty analysis as subsequent events would reveal. One of the great ironies of Afghanistan is that the U.S. supported the unruly Muslim factions to oust a communist government in Afghanistan that would be replaced by a reactionary Taliban-led state that tried to turn the clock back to the Medieval period while harboring terrorists who would make their blazing contributions to the headlines in the ensuing decades. A Taliban government that would undo the progress made in women's rights and education initiated by the communists.
Things are never what they seem. The Year of the Rebels verifies that maxim with a well-crafted narrative.… (altro)

Having (a) followed the events of this year as an undergrad and (b) having a graduate degree in conflict resolution, there's really not that much here that I'm unaware of. Still, I'm also not really the person for whom this book was written and Caryl's emphasis on 1979 as the year the "community of believers" reacted against the failures of state-led social progressivism is a point well-worth emphasizing to a new generation. This is particularly since we also live in an age where the social, political, and economic changes that erupted in the Seventies are the new orthodoxy due for a fall.… (altro)