Name: The Looming Tower
Rating: 4.434210526315789 (38 reviews)
ISBN: 9780375414862

Lawrence Wright

Explores both the American and Arab sides of the September 11th terrorist attacks in an account of the people, ideas, events, and intelligence failures that led to the attacks.

Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

The Looming Tower

A gripping narrative that spans five decades, The Looming Tower explains in unprecedented detail the growth of Islamic fundamentalism, the rise of al-Qaeda, and the intelligence failures that culminated in the attacks on the World Trade Center. Lawrence Wright re-creates firsthand the transformation of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri from incompetent and idealistic soldiers in Afghanistan to leaders of the most successful terrorist group in history. He follows FBI counterterrorism chief John O’Neill as he uncovers the emerging danger from al-Qaeda in the 1990s and struggles to track this new threat. Packed with new information and a deep historical perspective, The Looming Tower is the definitive history of the long road to September 11.
--back cover

Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

Wynter

I shut this book and I quietly wept for a few. The deeds that mankind is capable of in the name of fanatical convictions and out of blinding ignorance or political agenda are staggering. Frankly, it just made me so angry. 

Lawrence Wright creates a fascinating narrative of the last 50 years before the 9/11 attacks, as he begins with Sayyid Qutb's lean towards fundamentalism. Right after that, however, he is forced to come back again and again to the same fanaticism and the same excuses Taliban fighters use to twist their faith towards mass murder. Reading about 300 pages of this misguided philosophy is exhausting. But just as I was about to write The Looming Tower off as meandering, Wright switched to the stranger-than-fiction life and pursuits of FBI agent John O'Neal, who was involved in the investigation of al-Qaeda and who perished on the day of the attacks. One of a kind book that is definitely not going to leave you indifferent or detached.

Erwin Lemuel Oliva

Compelling, well-written account of events, people involved in America's turning point. Stories like these give light to questions on why 9-11 happened, and who were behind it. Wright offers a good narrative, put together after years of interviews, research and writing. It reads like fiction, but it is a slice of history.

Trevor Berrett

This book offers the clearest analysis of the road to 9/11. It starts in the 50s with Qutb and shows how his ideas took root in Egypt, especially in Zawahiri.
The writing is excellent throughout. If you're interested in learning more about the elements that combined and culminated in 9/11, this is the book.

Hugo Ahlberg

One of my favorite books I read in 2019. 
— Incredibly frustrating and depressing to read about the dysfunctional relationship between FBI and the CIA. I see organizational dysfunction everyday where I work, but reading about it here is just gut wrenching given what's at stake. I only hope it's better over there now..
— The history of al-Qaida was eyeopening as well. I realized how little I know about it, the people and events that led to 9/11, an event that continues to shape our lives almost two decades later. 
— the research that went into this book is astounding.
— despite being almost two decades ago, the last two chapters had me tear up multiple times.

Daniyal Asif

Suzanne C.

Brilliantly written, compelling and highly original, The Looming Tower is the first book to tell the full story of Al Qaeda from its roots up to 9/11. Drawing on astonishing interviews and first-hand sources, it investigates the extraordinary group of idealogues behind this organization - and those who tried to stop them. There is the tormented, resentful Egyptian Sayyid Qutb, who was horrified by the godlessness and decadence he perceived in America in 1948, and whose subsequent writings turned him into a martyr for Islamic extremists. There is Ayman al-Zawahiri: a devout student who, by the age of fifteen, had already helped to form an underground jihadist cell. There is the deeply contradictory Osama bin Laden: Saudi multimillionaire turned muhajideen commander, whose interests merged with al-Zawahiri's to form a global terror coalition. And there is the FBI's counterterrorism chief, the flamboyant, cigar-smoking John O'Neill, who found his warnings that 'something big' was coming continually ignored, and would finally meet his fate in the shadow of the Twin Towers. Interweaving this extraordinary story with events including the Israeli-Palestine conflict, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the first attack on the World Trade Center, Lawrence Wright takes us into training camps, mountain hideouts and top secret meetings to explore how it all fed into the planning and execution of 9/11 - and reveals the real, complex origins of Al Qaeda's hatred of the West.Wright's brilliantly acclaimed book now includes a new Afterword which covers events that have unfolded since publication, including the death of Osama Bin Laden

The Looming Tower Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

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