A Thousand Hills: Rwanda's Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: presidential guard, famous for just one thing, genocide ideology, New York, President Habyarimana, President Kagame (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best of the Month, June 2008: Fourteen years after the 1994 genocide that claimed 800,000 lives in 100 days, Rwandans continue the daily work of rebuilding their shattered country. In light of recent reports that one in four people suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder--which Rwandans aptly describe as ihahamuka or "breathless with fear"--how is recovery even possible? In search of answers, foreign correspondent Stephen Kinzer traveled extensively throughout Rwanda where he observed an astonishing economic and political transformation based surprisingly on Asian models, and the implementation of unconventional reconciliation efforts. The author also conducted extensive interviews with Rwanda's enigmatic president, Paul Kagame. The result of Kinzer's quest is A Thousand Hills, a page-turning story of a society desperately trying to regain its breath, and an ambitious and autocratic leader's unrelenting efforts to breathe life into its future. This is essential reading, even if you've read earlier accounts by Canadian general Roméo Dallaire, journalists Phillip Gourevitch and Samantha Power, and the heroic Paul Rusesabagina immortalized in the film Hotel Rwanda. --Lauren Nemroff

From 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)
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Wiley (June 3, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470120150
• ISBN-13: 978-0470120156
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,041 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and Insightful Read, July 18, 2008

By	M. Dudley (Charlotte, NC USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I read this book in preparation for trip to Rwanda later this year. Mr. Kinzer has done exhaustive research into the history or Rwanda from the early 20th century through the present. From the time of Belguin colonialism, the rise of the RPF in Uganda and the genocide to an a fair presentation of Paul Kagame's mission to bring peace, reconciliation and prosperity to Rwanda post genocide. Although Rwanda has a long way to go, according the author, they are on the right track - largely thanks to Paul Kagame. The author is highly critical (rightfully so in my opinion) of the Clinton Administration, the UN and France in particular in the role either ignoring or aiding the genocide. Highly recommended for anyone interested in the history of Rwanda and the current state of affairs in the country.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Understanding Paul Kagame, July 31, 2008

By	Thomas P. Odom "Tom" (DeRidder, Louisiana United States) - See all my reviews

President Paul Kagame is a man who inspires a wide range of emotions in those who meet him. Some like me admire him...Others hate him. Certainly many in French diplomatic circles see him as the devil clothed in Anglophone robes. In the Africanist analytical world, he is either Rwanda's greatest hope or its mortal danger. Certainly his enemies have reason to fear him even as his friends love him. Both enemy and friend know that the wise respect him.

I first met then Vice President and Defense Minister Major General Paul Kagame in the fall of 1994 when he was struggling to put the shattered country of Rwanda back together. Some were want to describe him as a "war lord" even as one could buy T-shirts with his picture on them with the phrase "Free at Last!" at Kigali's international airport. General Kagame was serious, determined, and it was clear that he was a strong man. What remained to be seen was whether he would become another "Big Man" in African politics or rise above that label to be a truly great African leader.

Like no other author so far, Stephen Kinzer offered us a peak inside the complexity named Paul Kagame. Kinzer enjoyed unprecedented access to the President of Rwanda and provided a colorful and insightful biography of the man. Like any good interlocutor, Kinzer understands that listening is best technique for the interviewer. He offers Kagame's own words to the reader allowing the subject of this biography to speak on his own behalf. That is not only fair, it is probably critical to understand this man who spent much of his life fighting the status quo--and ultimately winning.

According to Kinzer, Kagame's early life as a refugee in Uganda hardened him into the typical angry young man found in a life surrounded by poverty. Early on in his youth he became friends with Fred Rwigyema. Together they later would become co-founders of the Rwandan Patriotic Front. But first they would join Museveni's 40-man National Resistance Army in Uganda and overthrow Obote. When Rwigyema fell in the first few days of the RPF's 1990 invasion of Rwanda, Kagame resigned from the US Army Command and General Staff College to take command and reorganize the RPF. He and the RPF went on to win a military victory they did not really desire, sparking a genocide for which they could not be blamed.

Despite Kagame's military prowess, I found Kinzer's chapters on the post-war period from 2000 on to be the most illuminating because they concentrate on Kagame's role as President of Rwanda. At the same time, they provide great hope for the country's future and portents of possible disaster. President Kagame is indeed Rwanda's greatest hope. At the same time, he is his own greatest nemesis...

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in Africa, small wars, reconciliation, and development. Kinzer's prose is easy to read and entertaining. His narrative is insightful. The Paul Kagame I knew came to life when I read this book.

The full review is posted on Small Wars Journal Blog at http://smallwarsjournal.com/blog/2008/07/book-review-a-thousand-hills-r/

Thomas (Tom) P. Odom
LTC US Army (ret)
Author, Journey into Darkness: Genocide in Rwanda
Journey Into Darkness: Genocide In Rwanda (Texas a & M University Military History Series)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An important account, July 31, 2008

By	Seth J. Frantzman (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Paul Kagame, along with Morgan Tsvangirai and Yoweri Museveni, represents one of Arica's most brilliant contemporary leaders. Kagame was born in 1957 to a Tutsi family and at the age of three was forced to flee his country after a Hutu uprising forced more than a hundred thousand Tutsis to flee in an early form of ethnic-cleansing. In 1979 Kagame joined Yoweri Museveni's guerilla movement in Uganda, where he was residing as a refugee. Museveni was fighting the dictator Milton Obote and when Obote fell from power Kagame was able to study first hand the outcome of the overthrow of a viscious dictator. When the Rwandan genocide broke out in 1994 Paul Kagame was in charge of the Rwandan Patriotic Front, a mostly Tutsi armed guerilla group. His well disciplined army overthrew the genocidal regime and he has been in power ever since. This book examines his role in nation building and in reconciliation and it a wonderful account of the history of Rwanda before 1994 and after. In this it helps fill this important gap in the history of the country.

Seth J. Frantzman