The Terror Years cover art

The Terror Years

From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State

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About this listen

 With the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Looming Tower, Lawrence Wright became generally acknowledged as one of our major journalists writing on terrorism in the Middle East. Here, in ten powerful pieces first published in The New Yorker, he recalls the path that terror in the Middle East has taken, from the rise of al-Qaeda in the 1990s to the recent beheadings of reporters and aid workers by ISIS.

The Terror Years draws on several articles he wrote while researching The Looming Tower, as well as many that he’s written since, following where and how al-Qaeda and its core cultlike beliefs have morphed and spread. They include a portrait of the “man behind bin Laden,” Ayman al-Zawahiri, and the tumultuous Egypt he helped spawn; an indelible impression of Saudi Arabia, a kingdom of silence under the control of the religious police; the Syrian film industry, at the time compliant at the edges but already exuding a feeling of the barely masked fury that erupted into civil war; the 2006–11 Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Gaza, a study in the disparate value of human lives. Other chapters examine al-Qaeda as it forms a master plan for its future, experiences a rebellion from within the organization, and spins off a growing web of worldwide terror. The American response is covered in profiles of two FBI agents and the head of the intelligence community. The book ends with a devastating piece about the capture and slaying by ISIS of four American journalists and aid workers, and our government’s failed response.

On the fifteenth anniversary of 9/11, The Terror Years is at once a unifying recollection of the roots of contemporary Middle Eastern terrorism, a study of how it has grown and metastasized, and, in the scary and moving epilogue, a cautionary tale of where terrorism might take us yet.


With a Prologue read by the Author

AFP PHOTO/HO/ISIL 21st Century Freedom & Security Islam Middle East Modern Politics & Government War & Crisis Royalty War Iran Saudi Arabia Celebrity Civil War Africa Espionage Middle Ages Biography
All stars
Most relevant
Enjoyed this title. Wright writes with the clarity of a witness and the authenticity of an expert.

Great overview of terrorism that's the modern era

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Essential listening that interrogates and sums up the impact of terror in the making of the modern world.

A Must Read

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Did not enjoy.
This is basically a rehash of The Looming Tower (which was good) and some unbelievably boring stories about working at a news paper.
If you've read The Looming Tower then skip this book. If you haven't, get that instead.

Yawn!

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Performance wins *minus five* stars from me. Therefore, even if the story was (it probably IS) a 5-star affair, over all the score would be a neat zero. Therefore, I think I've been quite generous.

Terrible terrible shame. "The Looming Tower", read BY THE AUTHOR, was A M A Z I N G. Totally totally amazing.

WHY WHY WHY would you choose someone with SUCH a weird voice to read a 17+ hour audiobook!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

Don't get me wrong, it's an *interesting* voice. Not necessarily unpleasant. But it's...it sounds like something from a comedy sketch.

Gutted.

Narration so bad I won't be able to listen.

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