Politics high on this writer’s book list
January 7, 2009
This year I read a lot of books, or least a lot of books for me. A couple stand out in my mind, and so I thought I would share them with you.
“The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11″ (2006), by Lawrence Wright
This book is tireless in its details; but do not let that discourage you from giving it a read. The book is rather short at 373 pages; however, it is heavily noted and very user friendly. It contains a 10 page glossary of principal characters with brief descriptions of their importance; which is a invaluable resource in helping the reader keep track of the multitude of players with similar names.
Like most other histories of Muslim fundamentalism (such as the BBC video series “Power of Nightmares”), Wright starts with the story of Sayyid Qutb. Qutb was an Egyptian writer and Muslim that traveled through America in the late 1940’s. His experiences and perceptions, started the generational snowball that led to 9/11. [Read more]
