Charles Taylor and Liberia: Ambition and Atrocity in Africa’s Lone Star State

Campaigner, insurgent, fugitive, rebel commander, commodity kingpin, elected president, exile and finally prisoner, Charles Taylor sought to lead his country to change but instead ignited a conflict which destroyed Liberia in over a decade of violence, greed and personal ambition. Taylor’s takeover threw much of the neighbouring region into turmoil, until he was finally brought to face justice in The Hague for his role in Sierra Leone’s civil war. In this remarkable and eye-opening book, Colin Waugh draws on a variety of sources, testimonies and original interviews – including with Taylor himself – to recount the story of what really happened during those turbulent years. He examines both the life of Charles Taylor and the often self-interested efforts of the international community first to save Liberia from disaster, then, having failed to do so, to bring to justice the man it deems most to blame for its disintegration.