A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It
Advance Praise for A Thousand Hills\ "What a fascinating tale! What an inspiration! The courage and triumph of Paul Kagame show the beauty of reconciliation and of transcendent leadership. The world needs to learn his lessons, and Stephen Kinzer's brilliant narrative will help make this enlightenment possible."\ —Walter Isaacson, CEO, the Aspen Institute\ "A fascinating account of the near-miracle unfolding before our very eyes: a country, Rwanda, rising from the ashes of genocide...
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In 1994, the world stood idly by as Rwanda was devastated by the most horrifying genocide since the Holocaust. Now this tiny, land-locked nation stands poised to stun the world again—but in a very different way. Killers and survi-vors have embarked on a breathtaking path toward reconciliation, and Rwanda has become one of the most promising countries in the developing world. How did this happen? In A Thousand Hills, bestselling author Stephen Kinzer tells the dramatic story of Paul Kagame, whose rebel army stopped the genocide and whose government has turned Rwanda into a new star of Africa. Kagame grew up as a wretched refugee, shaped one of the most audacious covert operations in the history of clandestine warfare, and then emerged as a visionary leader with radical ideas about how poor countries can climb out of their misery. Whether his experiment can succeed is a question that has begun to fascinate people across Africa and beyond. A Thousand Hills tells Kagame's astonishing story more fully than it has ever been told before. Drawingon extensive interviews with Kagame himself and with people who knew him at every stage of his life, Kinzer recounts one of the great untold stories of modern revolution. He traces Kagame through his years as a bitterly angry student, recounts his early fascination with men of action ranging from Che Guevara to James Bond, and explains how he built a secret revolutionary army in a way no one ever had before. With the dramatic flair that has led the Washington Post to call him "among the best in foreign policy storytelling," Kinzer then traces the three-and-a-half-year war Kagame waged in the Rwandan bush—a war that stopped a genocide, changed the destiny of a nation, and set in motion one of the most exciting social and political experiments now under way anywhere in the world. Filled with harrowing tales of guerilla warfare, heart-wrenching accounts of the genocide carried out by the government of Rwanda, and inspiring stories of how a devastated nation can reinvent itself, A Thousand Hills is powerful, moving, and deeply compelling. Publishers Weekly Kinzer (All the Shah's Men) has penned a hagiographic account of Rwandan president Paul Kagame, the Tutsi refugee who organized the Rwandan Military Front in 1994 and helped halt the genocide in Rwanda. Instead of settling scores, Kagame embarked on a program of reconciliation and reconstruction; Kinzer eloquently describes a physical and psychological recovery unmatched in Africa: a Rwanda whose people are "bubbling with a sense of unlimited possibility." Kagame's goal, modeled on the successes of "Asian tigers" like Singapore, aims to transform Rwanda into the continent's first middle-income country in a single generation, eschewing foreign aid in favor of reliance on business-driven development. Kinzer does not conceal the bloody realities behind Kagame's acquisition of power nor does he deny Kagame's "rigorous, absolutist approach to governing." Nevertheless, he is transparently trusting in Kagame's capabilities and intentions, and while his eloquent prose invites optimism, a half-century of experience urges caution. (June)Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Introduction 11 You Can't Just Pretend Nothing Happened 102 Elegant Golden-Red Beauties 223 That's Why I Survived 424 A Glass of Milk 595 Devastation 706 Creatures from Another World 877 We Just Didn't Get It 1138 This Is a Coup 1379 Madam, They're Killing My People 14810 What a Farce 16911 Something Really Fills Up in Your Mind 18012 Rwanda Doesn't Matter 19713 The Tricky Part 20914 When You're Not Serious, You Can't Be Correct 23315 Breathless with Fear 25316 Famous for Just One Thing 28117 The Web Grows Big 30118 We Aspire to Be Like Others 324Notes 339Bibliography 359Index 369
\ From the Publisher"…tells a remarkable tale about a remarkable man." (The Economist, August 21, 2008)\ Kinzer (All the Shah’s Men) has penned a hagiographic account of Rwandan president Paul Kagame, the Tutsi refugee who organized the Rwandan Military Front in 1994 and helped halt the genocide in Rwanda. Instead of settling scores, Kagame embarked on a program of reconciliation and reconstruction; Kinzer eloquently describes a physical and psychological recovery unmatched in Africa: a Rwanda whose people are "bubbling with a sense of unlimited possibility." Kagame’s goal, modeled on the successes of "Asian tigers" like Singapore, aims to transform Rwanda into the continent’s first middle-income country in a single generation, eschewing foreign aid in favor of reliance on business-driven development. Kinzer does not conceal the bloody realities behind Kagame’s acquisition of power nor does he deny Kagame’s "rigorous, absolutist approach to governing." Nevertheless, he is transparently trusting in Kagame’s capabilities and intentions, and while his eloquent prose invites optimism, a half-century of experience urges caution. (June) (Publishers Weekly, April 21, 2008)\ \ \ \ \ \ Publishers WeeklyKinzer (All the Shah's Men) has penned a hagiographic account of Rwandan president Paul Kagame, the Tutsi refugee who organized the Rwandan Military Front in 1994 and helped halt the genocide in Rwanda. Instead of settling scores, Kagame embarked on a program of reconciliation and reconstruction; Kinzer eloquently describes a physical and psychological recovery unmatched in Africa: a Rwanda whose people are "bubbling with a sense of unlimited possibility." Kagame's goal, modeled on the successes of "Asian tigers" like Singapore, aims to transform Rwanda into the continent's first middle-income country in a single generation, eschewing foreign aid in favor of reliance on business-driven development. Kinzer does not conceal the bloody realities behind Kagame's acquisition of power nor does he deny Kagame's "rigorous, absolutist approach to governing." Nevertheless, he is transparently trusting in Kagame's capabilities and intentions, and while his eloquent prose invites optimism, a half-century of experience urges caution. (June)\ Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.\ \ \ Library JournalDuring the 1990s, the tiny African country Rwanda descended into a devastating genocidal conflict. It has since not only recovered but flourished. In elegant prose and vivid detail, foreign correspondent Kinzer (All the Shah's Men) reconstructs Rwanda's unique history, focusing on the dramatic story of President Paul Kagame, whom he credits as the architect of Rwanda's rebirth. The reading by J. Paul Boehmer (Moby Dick) is not as robust as one might wish, but he smoothly moves the narrative along. A fascinating title giving a solid introduction to modern African history; recommended.-[Audio clip available through www.tantor.com.-Ed.]—R. Kent Rasmussen\ \
