Topic: “The Political Mind: Why You Can’t Understand 21st Century American Politics with an 18th Century Brain”

One writer’s “best reads” of the year

By Blayne Clements | December 27, 2008 |

This year I read a lot of books, or least a lot of books for me.  A couple  stand out in my mind, and so I thought I would share them with you.

“The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11″ (2006), by Lawrence Wright

This book is tireless in its details; but do not let that discourage you from giving it a read.  The book  is rather short at 373 pages; however, it is heavily noted and very user friendly. It contains a 10 page glossary of principal characters with brief descriptions of their importance; which is a invaluable resource in helping the reader keep track of the multitude of players with similar names.

Like most other histories of Muslim fundamentalism (such as the BBC video series “Power of Nightmares”), Wright starts with the story of Sayyid Qutb.  Qutb was an Egyptian writer and Muslim that traveled through America in the late 1940’s.  His experiences and perceptions, started the generational snowball that  led to 9/11. «Read the rest of this article»

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