A01=Jeffrey W. Jones
Afghanistan
Author_Jeffrey W. Jones
Category=NHB
Category=NHD
Category=NHW
communist regime
discourse
disinformation
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
glasnost
Gorbachev
military failure
narrative
opposition
propaganda
Soviet collapse
Soviet invasion
Soviet-Afghan War
USSR
war perceptions
Product details
- ISBN 9781487562748
- Weight: 580g
- Dimensions: 159 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 07 Aug 2025
- Publisher: University of Toronto Press
- Publication City/Country: CA
- Product Form: Hardback
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This book studies the complexities of the Soviet–Afghan War from several points of view, calling attention to the experiences of those involved.
The late-1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan compounded the lack of support among Afghans for their country’s communist regime, which doomed the Soviet military undertaking from the start, and in turn contributed to the downfall of the Soviet system itself. Amid a battlefield of propaganda and disinformation from all sides that attempted to shape perceptions of the war, a clear undercurrent of opposition emerged within the USSR and grew over time, dominating the discourse during Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost (openness) reform in the late 1980s.
In Smoke, Mirrors, and Memories, Jeffery W. Jones conveys a broad picture without the narrative illusion of a seamless story amid the fog of war, analyzing varied accounts relayed by a wide range of sources. He argues that an evolving narrative and discourse on the war in the latter half of the 1980s helped pave the way for the collapse of the USSR as disillusionment with the conflict grew within Soviet society.
The late-1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan compounded the lack of support among Afghans for their country’s communist regime, which doomed the Soviet military undertaking from the start, and in turn contributed to the downfall of the Soviet system itself. Amid a battlefield of propaganda and disinformation from all sides that attempted to shape perceptions of the war, a clear undercurrent of opposition emerged within the USSR and grew over time, dominating the discourse during Mikhail Gorbachev’s glasnost (openness) reform in the late 1980s.
In Smoke, Mirrors, and Memories, Jeffery W. Jones conveys a broad picture without the narrative illusion of a seamless story amid the fog of war, analyzing varied accounts relayed by a wide range of sources. He argues that an evolving narrative and discourse on the war in the latter half of the 1980s helped pave the way for the collapse of the USSR as disillusionment with the conflict grew within Soviet society.
Jeffrey W. Jones is a professor of Russian/Soviet and contemporary world history at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
