Monday, October 03, 2016

NEWSHOUR BOOKSHELF - "The Terror Years"

"Understanding the rise of the Islamic State" PBS NewsHour 9/30/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  As a young man, Lawrence Wright first visited the Middle East when he taught English in Cairo.  He has spent much of his life since reporting on the region -- documenting culture by sharing the stories of individuals.  His new book, “The Terror Years,” considers the evolution of extremism and the Islamic State since 9/11.  Wright sits down with Jeffrey Brown to discuss.

JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):  Lawrence Wright first went to the Middle East as a young man to teach English in Cairo.  It was the beginning of a long relationship with the region that would coincide with the rise of terrorism and American wars that continue to this day.

His 2006 book, “The Looming Tower,” on the growth of al-Qaida and events leading to 9/11, won the Pulitzer Prize.  Now he's pulled together writings from “The New Yorker” magazine, the product of many years of reporting, in a new book titled “The Terror Years:  From Al-Qaeda to the Islamic State.”

And, Larry Wright, welcome back to you.

LAWRENCE WRIGHT, Author, “The Terror Years”:  Thank you, Jeff.  It's good to be with you.

JEFFREY BROWN:  Fifteen years after 9/11, I suppose there is a sense of wanting to tie things together.  Did you see a guiding thread in your work when you went back to look at it?

LAWRENCE WRIGHT:  Yes.

I was planning just to put together a collection of articles, but then when I looked at all the work that I had done on terrorism since 9/11, I never thought that I would still be writing about that 15 years later.

But I realized these pieces told — had a kind of narrative quality in terms of the evolution of ISIS and al-Qaida and how it's developed from 9/11 until today.

No comments: