Assad or We Burn the Country

How One Family's Lust for Power Destroyed Syria

By: Sam Dagher

Narrated by: Gary Tiedemann

From a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist specializing in the Middle East, this groundbreaking account of the Syrian Civil War reveals the never-before-published true story of a 21st-century humanitarian disaster.

In spring 2011, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad turned to his friend and army commander, Manaf Tlass, for advice about how to respond to Arab Spring-inspired protests. Tlass pushed for conciliation but Assad decided to crush the uprising - an act which would catapult the country into an eight-year long war, killing almost half a million and fueling terrorism and a global refugee crisis.

Assad or We Burn the Country examines Syria's tragedy through the generational saga of the Assad and Tlass families, once deeply intertwined and now estranged in Bashar's bloody quest to preserve his father's inheritance. By drawing on his own reporting experience in Damascus and exclusive interviews with Tlass, Dagher takes listeners within palace walls to reveal the family behind the destruction of a country and the chaos of an entire region.

Dagher shows how one of the world's most vicious police states came to be and explains how a regional conflict extended globally, engulfing the Middle East and pitting the United States and Russia against one another.

Timely, propulsive, and expertly reported, Assad or We Burn the Country is the definitive account of this global crisis, going far beyond the news story that has dominated headlines for years.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2019 Sam Dagher (P)2019 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"A moving and insightful account of the Syrian civil war." (Yuval Noah Harari, The Guardian)

"A riveting chronicle from a courageous journalist who was there to witness and report the truth. A book that should deservedly garner significant award attention." (Kirkus, starred review)

"He was briefly held by pro-regime militiamen in an underground prison and was summarily expelled by the Mukhabarat in 2014. This gives his description of events a credibility lacking in many other accounts." (Patrick Cockburn, New York Times Book Review)

Excellent book

This is an excellent recount of what has been happening in Syria in the past 50 years. The book is fair and based on facts and kept me intrigued.

The Gangsters of Russia, Iran & Syria

Any person with a sliver of compassion will be sickened with this work, which exposes an axis of evil, that Adolph Hitler would be proud of. There is a special place in hell for the men who organized these crimes against humanity.
I highly recommend this work….

Good primer on Syria today (2020)

This is a great overview of the Syrian revolution from an anti-Assad perspective. Detailed in just the right parts to give an understanding of the situation in Syria post Arab Spring, without bogging itself down with an expanded explanation of the conflicts in South Western Asia. Pro-Assad listeners will find support for claims limited to mostly western sources.

Personally I would’ve preferred more about the involvement of the people of Kurdistan and Rojava, but that’s not what the book claims to be so it’s not something I can fault it for. Overall good book, and I recommend it before you have any sort of conversation of Syria, Assad, or civil strife.

Be safe, take care of yourself.

Excellent review of the worst 21st genocide

Sam performed a thorough dissection study for the factors that led to the quagmire called the Syrian crisis.

For anyone who is interested to know what happened there, this book is the Bible that you should look for.

Thank you Sam!

"Assad or Nobody. Assad or We Burn the Country."

Great Narration. Hafez-era to Bashar-era. Necessary Reading on Syria. Highly Recommended. Excellent work by Sam.

the telling of Syrian story as truly happened

one of the few honest objective description of what happened in Syria and why it happened and how it happened

Magnificent story of the Assad family’s rise to power

Latter parts of the book dive into the war and lots of resemblance and history for how putin’s relationship with Assad play into current war in Ukraine.

Eye opening insight

A little long winded and winding at times, but truly an eye opening look into one of the worlds most interesting regions and modern dictatorships

insider account of Syrian civil war

This is the best journalist account of the Syrian civil war, although very dependent on the perspective of defector Manaf Tlas.

Good listen

Although I had to cringe when the author attributed the motivation for the Benghazi attack on the infamous YouTube video.