The Rise, Fall and Rise of the Taliban

Dan Snow's History Hit

The Taliban’s return to power in August 2021 shocked the world. But, it was not an abrupt collapse — it was decades in the making. Lyse Doucet has spent her career reporting from the world's war zones and at the key moments in modern history as the BBC's Chief International Correspondent. She's followed the events in Afghanistan for decades and joins Dan to explain the rise of the Taliban from the chaos of the Soviet invasion in the 1980s, through their brutal rule in the 1990s, the impact of American and British intervention after 9/11 and explains how they returned to Kabul in 2021, plunging Afghanistan into another era under their grip. 


Her new book, which explores this history through the lens of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, where both international journalists and the Taliban stay, depending on who is running the country. It's called 'The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People's History of Afghanistan'


Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore


Dan Snow's History Hit is now available on YouTube! Check it out at: https://www.youtube.com/@DSHHPodcast


Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.


You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More description

The Taliban’s return to power in August 2021 shocked the world. But, it was not an abrupt collapse — it was decades in the making. Lyse Doucet has spent her career reporting from the world's war zones and at the key moments in modern history as the BBC's Chief International Correspondent. She's followed the events in Afghanistan for decades and joins Dan to explain the rise of the Taliban from the chaos of the Soviet invasion in the 1980s, through their brutal rule in the 1990s, the impact of American and British intervention after 9/11 and explains how they returned to Kabul in 2021, plunging Afghanistan into another era under their grip. 


Her new book, which explores this history through the lens of the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul, where both international journalists and the Taliban stay, depending on who is running the country. It's called 'The Finest Hotel in Kabul: A People's History of Afghanistan'


Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore


Dan Snow's History Hit is now available on YouTube! Check it out at: https://www.youtube.com/@DSHHPodcast


Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.


You can also email the podcast directly at ds.hh@historyhit.com.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

2026-01-05 63 min
Listen elsewhere

Available Results

Generated results are saved to your library for reuse and search.

No generated results are available for this episode yet.

Transcript

No transcript is available for this episode yet.
Sign in to generate a transcript for review.
Sign in

Chapters

No chapters available.