Graeme Wood

A radical rethinking of what ISIS is and what it really wants From Graeme Wood, author of the explosive Atlantic cover story "What ISIS Really Wants," comes the definitive book on the history, psychology, character, and aims of the Islamic State. Based on Wood's unprecedented access to supporters, recruiters, and high-ranking members of the most infamous jihadist group in the world, The Way of the Strangers is a riveting, fast-paced deep dive into the apocalyptic dogma that informs the group's worldview, from the ideas that motivate it, to the "fatwa factory" that produces its laws, to its very specific plans for the future. By accepting that ISIS truly believes the end is nigh, we can understand its strategy-and predict what it will do next.

Encounters with the Islamic State

The Way of the Strangers

From Graeme Wood, author of the explosive Atlantic cover story "What ISIS Really Wants," comes the definitive book on the history, psychology, character, and aims of the Islamic State. Based on Wood's unprecedented access to supporters, recruiters, and high-ranking members of the most infamous jihadist group in the world, The War of the End of Times is a riveting, fast-paced deep dive into the apocalyptic dogma that informs the group's worldview, from the ideas that motivate it, to the "fatwa factory" that produces its laws, to its very specific plans for the future. By accepting that ISIS truly believes the end is nigh, we can understand its strategy-and predict what it will do next.

Jade Flynn

It's honestly just shocking how not only do many of the people Wood interviews, disagrees with not only, any non-follower/believer of Islam but the vast majority of followers it seems also disagree with each other, they all simply contradict one another and it's actually quite laughable. I do share the opinion of one of the quotes on the back of the book, stating that we can bomb ISIS in Raqqa and Mosul into oblivion but it doesn't matter if we do not understand and wipe-out the ideology first which is a much harder task. A great piece of insightful journalism.

Phil James

I was given a copy of this book. It intimidated me with a heavy subject but was a lot lighter to read than expected. Think Jon Ronson's Psychopath Test written from someone with a track record of serious journalism. It didn't exactly make me laugh but as the author gets deeper and deeper into the bizarre beliefs of ISIS recruiters and their teachers, the experience becomes intensely surreal.

He also is stubborn enough to ask awkward questions to Islamic scholars and listens carefully to the answers.

This is a book that many people would benefit from reading. He shows the ways our misperceptions are playing into exactly what these apocalyptic cultists want and how they are on a spectrum of religious beliefs that have already shaped our history.

The Way of the Strangers Encounters with the Islamic State

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