The Terror Years: From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Looming Tower —and “one of the most lucid writers on the subject of Islamic extremism” ( The New York Review of Books )—come ten powerful investigative pieces, an essential primer on jihadist movements in the Middle East and the attempts of the West to contain them.

In these pages, Lawrence Wright examines al-Qaeda as it experiences a rebellion from within and spins off a growing web of worldwide terror. He shows us the Syrian film industry before the civil war—compliant at the edges but already exuding a barely masked fury. He gives us the heart-wrenching story of American children kidnapped by ISIS—and Atlantic publisher David Bradley’s efforts to secure their release. And he details the roles of key FBI figures John O’Neill and his talented protégé Ali Soufan in fighting terrorism. In a moving epilogue, Wright shares his predictions for the future. Rigorous, clear-eyed, and compassionate, The Terror Years illuminates the complex human players on all sides of a devastating conflict. These essays were first published in The New Yorker.