{"product_id":"2940169323740","title":"The Terror Years: From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWith the Pulitzer Prize-winning \u003ci\u003eThe Looming Tower,\u003c\/i\u003e 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 \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker,\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Terror Years\u003c\/i\u003e draws on several articles he wrote while researching \u003ci\u003eThe Looming Tow\u003c\/i\u003eer\u003ci\u003e,\u003c\/i\u003e 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 audiobook 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Terror Years\u003c\/i\u003e 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.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWith a Prologue read by the Author\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47114298392816,"sku":"2940169323740","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940169323740_p0.jpg?v=1763679521","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940169323740","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}