The Hardest Place – Hill Nadell Literary Agency

The Hardest Place

(Hardcover) (Paperback March 2022)
Wesley Morgan
The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan’s Pech Valley
(Random House, March 2021)

Winner of the William E. Colby Award for Military and Intelligence Writing
Featured on Variety‘s list of The Best New Political Audiobooks
Highlighted by Senator Elizabeth Warren during a Senate Committee on Afghanistan

A deeply reported history of the American war in Afghanistan told through the infantry battalions and commando teams who fought in one of the country’s most violent regions: the Pech valley.

When we think of the war in Afghanistan, chances are we’re thinking of a small, remote corner of the country where American military action has been concentrated: the Pech and its tributary valleys in Kunar and Nuristan provinces. The rugged, steep terrain and thick forests made the region a natural hiding spot for targets in the American war on terror, from Osama bin Laden to the Islamic State, and it has been the site of constant U.S. military activity for nearly two decades. Even as the U.S. presence in Afghanistan transitions to a drone war, the Pech has remained at the center of it, a testbed for a new method of remote warfare.Wesley Morgan first visited the Pech in 2010, while he was still a college student embedding with military units as a freelancer. By then, the Pech and its infamous tributary the Korengal had become emblematic of the war, but Morgan found that few of the troops fighting there could explain why their remote outposts had been built. In The Hardest Place, he unravels the history those troops didn’t know, captures the culture and reality of the war through both American and Afghan eyes, and reports on the snowballing American missteps that made each unit’s job harder than the last as storied outfits like Marines, paratroopers, Rangers, Green Berets, and SEALs all took their turn.Through reporting trips, hundreds of interviews with Americans and Afghans, and documentary research, Morgan writes vividly of large-scale missions gone awry, years-long hunts for single individuals, and the soldiers, Marines, commandos, and intelligence operatives who cycle through, along with several who return again and again to the same slowly evolving fight.

As the war drags on through its third presidential administration, Morgan concludes that we’ve created a status quo that could last forever in the Pech, with the military and intelligence agencies always in search of the next target.

Praise for THE HARDEST PLACE

“Wesley Morgan’s recently released book about the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan, “The Hardest Place: The American Military Adrift in Afghanistan’s Pech Valley,” is unique in its completeness. Arguably, it is the closest any book about the American war in Afghanistan has come to capturing what transpired in a slice of territory occupied by U.S. forces… Books like Morgan’s will serve as the epitaphs for the failures of the American military in its two-decade-long war.”
–The New York Times

“Morgan enriches his impressive research and insightful analysis with vivid writing and deft character sketches. The result is a definitive portrait of the epicenter of America’s longest war.”
–Publishers Weekly, starred review

“Required reading for anyone who wants to understand the war in Afghanistan.”
–Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“Within its accessible pages, readers can gain a better understanding of an ongoing, yet often forgotten war. An essential, thoroughly reported work.”
–Library Journal, starred review

“Morgan’s diligence and immersion have advantages, too, though: He is attuned to the life of the infantryman in a way few journalists ever manage to be. He understands the vernacular, the acronyms and — importantly — the way popular culture interacts with real life.”
–The Washington Post

“Wesley Morgan’s The Hardest Place is embedded reporting at its finest. It is an important and vital read, deeply researched, spectacularly executed, and urgent now that the future of Afghanistan is so uncertain once again.”
–Foreign Policy

“Mr. Wesley Morgan offers a penetrating look at the Afghanistan campaign through the lens of one part of the country—the Pech Valley—in his exceptional new book The Hardest Place… Raw, frank, and exquisite reporting…”
–Diplomatic Courier

“The Hardest Place…fully deserves to be recognized and occupy a prominent place in the growing literature on the two-decade Afghan conflict.”
–Army History Magazine

“Morgan has written the definitive account of America’s heroic but ultimately doomed effort in one of Afghanistan’s most rugged regions. His research is stunningly thorough, and his writing style absolutely irresistible. If one book should be studied by the US military for an unvarnished look at both their successes and failures, it should be this one.”
–Sebastian Junger, author of Tribe

“Vivid, balanced, and comprehensive, The Hardest Place illuminates the endless American war in Afghanistan as few other battle narratives have. Wesley Morgan has written a saga of courage and futility, of valor and error and heartbreak.”
–Rick Atkinson, author of The British Are Coming

“Morgan’s exhaustive reporting provides a definitive examination of a small corner of Afghanistan, revealing unsettling truths about America’s entanglement in a conflict without a coda… Morgan’s detail and nuance sets the standard for future efforts to unpack the complexities of America’s involvement in wars like Afghanistan. The book’s most noteworthy accomplishment is Morgan’s delicate and humane portrayal of the Pech Valley combatants, bringing nuance and depth to the experiences of those tasked with a nearly impossible mission.”
–Modern War Institute at West Post

“America’s war in Afghanistan is dangerous, complicated and now in its second decade. Few books have told the real story of this lengthy conflict, but Wes Morgan has pulled off this feat by focusing his deep reporting and clear writing on eastern Afghanistan where many of the key battles played out. The Hardest Place is one of the best books telling the story of America’s longest war.”
–Peter Bergen, author of Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad

“America’s longest war may be its least understood. Readers who want to understand the war in Afghanistan and the experiences of those who fight in their name should read Wesley Morgan’s impeccably researched and well told story. When they do, they are likely to appreciate more the service and sacrifices of America’s warriors. The Hardest Place explains not only why America’s war in Afghanistan was bound to be difficult, but also why it has been much harder than it had to be.”
–H.R. McMaster, author of Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World

“Veteran war correspondent Wesley Morgan takes on the longest, bloodiest campaign of the war in Afghanistan, the battle for the Korengal Valley. Morgan captures the heroism, fear and exultation of combat while laying out a damning portrait of military leaders who rushed into battle against an enemy they didn’t understand and ultimately couldn’t beat. Vividly written, exhaustively researched and compulsively engaging, The Hardest Place marks Wesley Morgan’s arrival as one of America’s foremost military historians.”
–Evan Wright, author of Generation Kill

“A superb piece of writing. In years to come, people will look at the war in Afghanistan and wonder how it was that U.S. troops were sent to remote, forsaken places, rotation after rotation, achieving so little yet at great cost in terms of blood and treasure. They will need look no further than Morgan’s detailed and deeply researched account of American troops in the Pech. The book is a testament to the dedication of American soldiers to a hopeless cause.”
–Emma Sky, Director Yale World Fellows and author of The Unraveling: High Hopes and Missed Opportunities in Iraq

“This is the story of how America, with the best of intentions, great bravery, and a lot of firepower, got itself into a long and thankless struggle in a very hard place. Wes Morgan spent ten years reporting this story, and his digging and search for the truth have produced a compelling and timeless tale of men at war.”
–Evan Thomas, author of First: Sandra Day O’Connor

“Deeply reported, vividly told, The Hardest Place is not only the definitive account of America’s longest battle in its longest war but also a cautionary tale for any policy maker who would plunge us into another war.”
–Elliot Ackerman, author of Red Dress in Black & White

“Morgan’s unique ability to weave an incredible story of American heroism and sacrifice with the hard-to-swallow truths surrounding the Pech serve as a microcosm of the entire Afghan war. When future generations reflect on America’s longest war and those who fought it, The Hardest Place should be the first book they reach for… Morgan demonstrates an expert ability to combine hard-researched journalism with unrelenting narrative.”
–Coffee or Die

“Superbly sourced and researched, respectful of its subjects and their fallen brothers, THE HARDEST PLACE is a new classic.”
–The Virginian-Pilot

Wesley Morgan is a military affairs reporter who most recently covered the Pentagon for two and a half years at Politico. He previously worked as a freelance journalist in Washington, D.C., Iraq, and Afghanistan, contributing stories to The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Atlantic and other publications. He is an alumnus of Princeton University.