If you had handed me this story in the form of a film script, I'd have written it off as far too melodramatic and unrealistic to sustain that all-important willing suspension of disbelief. I'd have laughed in your face. Even Michael Bay would find this sequence of events too unbelievable to render on film. And yet this is how it went down. I'm personally not really old enough to remember the pre-9/11 world, but it is probably the defining event of our lifetimes and shaped the era we still live in. To distill the churning cauldron of emotions boiling in my brain into a goodreads review seems a futile task, but I'll endeavour to try.

The Looming Tower is effectively two stories. The first weaves the complex tapestry of events, personalities and light-speed socio-economic changes in the Arab world that gave rise to the murderous and twisted vision of Islam embraced by Al-Qaeda, of whom our principal players are Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zahawari. The second focuses on the small group of bickering bureaucrats in the FBI and CIA who charted Al-Qaeda's rise through their early attacks, saw the attacks coming, and failed to prevent them.

This is a fantastic book, which goes right into the mid-20th century roots of jihadist fundamentalism, deep into the philosophical debates forged in Egyptian prisons, onto the sands of Saudi Arabia, during what must have been the most remarkable few decades in its history as one of the world's biggest economies just exploded out of the sand in the hands of a few powerful tribes who beforehand were more or less still desert nomads. From there we go to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, to Sudan, to Yemen, Kenya, Tanzania. It's amazing given the detail and depth of the narrative that it remained so taut and tense, less like a comprehensive history than a John Le Carré spy thriller. To understand the world we inherited after 9/11, this feels like a must-read. The longterm plotting of the history of the Islamic fundamentalist turn from America as the one non-imperial superpower and saviour of the post World War II order, to the greatest evil on earth is fascinating, and so are the little details and vignettes of all the players. Bin Laden will forever be a somewhat enigmatic figure, and yet it was hard not to compare his love of the primitive, and the romance of the Arabian desert and the cave to a weird mirror image of T.E. Lawrence, fighting his own kind of independence movement. The parallels between Bin Laden and the tragic (in the Greek sense of the word) figure of FBI counterterrorism chief John O'Neil, in their faiths and attitudes towards women were also skilfully drawn. I'm not sure this book can be read and not provoke an outpouring of reactions about how its readers see the world. Mine are outlined below.

I will try to differentiate my response from 'Jessica's fantastic review from 2012 on this site (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...) because more than 10 years after that review, and almost 20 years after this book was published, many of her thoughts ring true. Similarly to Jessica, 9/11 is an event that I don't like to talk about with many people because of the way the U.S. reacted. People occasionally write with sad nostalgia about the 'September 12th spirit' that unified the nation in solidarity, sympathy and support with the victims in New York, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, a spirit that soon was squandered. I was 5, so I can't speak with any authority on the extent of or how long this spirit actually lasted, although I would point people to Howard Stern's radio broadcast during the attacks as evidence that many Americans reacted immediately with the kind of ugly racism and apocalyptic war-mongering that would characterise the long term response. I frequently fall down Wikipedia 9/11 rabbit holes – it is just such a mind-boggling event – but I don't tend to talk to Americans about it, precisely because what came after 9/11 was such an unmitigated disaster for America on the world stage, and I don't want to hear people attempt to justify the millions of innocent lives that were lost in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

De-radicalisation is something I thought about a lot while reading this one, as political polarisation continually pushes Americans further apart. How do you convince a QAnon believer that Democrats aren't harvesting kids' adrenochrome? How do you reason with somebody whose beliefs are rooted in an absence of evidence? How can you unpick the steel-like strands of fanaticism? The Looming Tower scared me, most notably in that it makes me feel less certain that you can always change people's minds. As Jessica notes in that review from 2012, I fear that sitting down with somebody like Mohamad Atta would not de-radicalise him. The more he learned about me (majored in English Lit, writing about feminist texts, Jewish authors, infidel artists etc, moved abroad to teach English in China, now working for the U.S. government to promote western culture in developing countries) the more he'd be convinced that killing me would make his world a better place. And the more I learned about him (including the fact a staple meal for him would be a few scoops of cold mashed potato from a small mountain of mash he kept in the fridge and his almost horrified aversion to women), the more I would be convinced that this man was an incredibly big piece of shit who needed more cuddles as a child and would have benefited from therapy, two things which he would recoil at as even more evidence of my inherent demonic beliefs.

Speaking of conspiracy theories and radical beliefs, it is hard to read The Looming Tower and conclude that America's government was in any fit state of making 9/11 an inside job. I'm not going to waste many words on this, but a conspiracy of that scale requires either the participation of huge numbers of people, or high levels of secrecy and coordination by a small group of highly skilled actors. In contrast, Lawrence Wright portrays a shitstorm of petty infighting, bureaucratic intransigence and unnecessary, ego-driven weiner waggling that meant the right people didn't get hold of crucial evidence until it was far too late. The panicked, rushing last few chapters of the book are devastating, and – not for the first time – will have readers fuming at the American government, but particularly the CIA, who do not come out of this mess looking good at all. I personally was completely unaware that the CIA had hard evidence of Al-Qaeda hijackers in the country 18 months before the attack, and yet refused to share that information with the FBI. When this evidence finally came to the FBI in the wake of the attacks, one agent had the hijackers identified and irrefutably linked to Al-Qaeda in 5 days. 18 months to sit on the intelligence. And all they would have needed was 5 days to solve it. It's at this point in the review where I would express my shock that all the major CIA players involved in this book were promoted and some even awarded honours, but I'm cynical enough now to be surprised if these sorts of people ever face any semblance of justice.

I feel odd working as a representative of America, partly because I was raised outside America, but mostly because I find it hard to defend its recent record on the world stage. As Wright notes, America's response to the 9/11 attacks was exactly what Bin Laden wanted, to have the world's greatest economy poured into two decades of mostly pointless conflict, to lose respect from its allies (only Britain was supine enough to follow the United States into the Middle East), and largely destabilise the region. The Taliban are back in Afghanistan, Libya is a mess, Syria is (hopefully) taking its first steps towards what might be a brighter future, Yemen is still starving, and Israel is committing war crimes left, right and centre. It is, in short, the world that Bin Laden and al-Zawahiri, now both dead, had hoped would radicalise the next generation of jihadists. As technology progresses, AI, drones, computer viruses, and even the awful spectre of computer-GENERATED biological viruses are all either on the horizon or already here. These threats aren't going away.

And it makes me sad. It makes me sad because America should have managed better. Although my foreign policy views are more dovish than hawkish, I think a short term military response may have been warranted in Afghanistan, but the long term occupation of both countries has only resulted in more chaos, more poverty, more displacement, and in short, more misery. I'm not enough of a pessimist to say that the terrorists won, but the United States, along with Europe and most of the rest of the democratic world, sacrificed significant personal freedoms in the wake of 9/11. Many of the actions taken made America look just as bad as the repressive dictatorships most of these religious figures were condemning in the first place. These precedents were adopted by other great powers to justify further incursions of human rights, ethnic cleansing and forced labour camps for Muslims. Were those sacrifices necessary? Did Americans make themselves safer? Some may point to the absence of a 9/11-level attack in the following years as proof that Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and all the other crimes committed in the name of the American people were worth it. In doing so, the United States created an all-seeing security state, and handed even greater power to unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats. Our right to privacy may be gone, but the fundamentalist Islamic ideology still remains, mutating and shifting to copycat, 'leaderless resistance' attacks such as those carried out by ISIS in the 2010s. In the immediate wake of 9/11, the Arab world was firmly united against Al-Qaeda. After all, the hijackers didn't only murder Americans; they murdered plenty of Muslims from the Middle East too. The invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, however, were compelling evidence to the extremists' narrative that the U.S. wanted to take over the Middle East. It saddens me to read Wright's 2011 afterword, ending on a note of tentative hope in the months that followed the Arab Spring. What began as a movement of such promise ended with, if anything, even worse conditions of instability, violence and death - conditions which contributed to the rise of ISIS.

In short, the United States created a new world because of the events described in this book. We owe it to ourselves to understand why. The Looming Tower is as comprehensive a guide to how this world was made as any I've read.

One of the better non-fiction works I’ve ever read. Maybe not objectively, but at least in terms of my own interest and engagement with the book. I learned so much about the politics and theology surrounding fundamentalist Islam, Islamism, the mujahideen, the Taliban, moderate Islam, and how they all relate. Also I learned so much about the interplay between the FBI, CIA, NSA, and the White House. So much learning. And so much intrigue as I read. This book was really long and really dense and I did not want it to be over. Mannnyyyy thoughts swirling around after this one.

Thinking this would be a compendium of dry (but also heavy) investigation facts and findings, I put off reading this for several years. I was pleasantly surprised at how fascinating and engrossing it was.

For anyone with a desire for a better understanding of what went into the planning and ultimate enactment of the terrorist plots of 9/11, this comprehensive report does a really good job going back in time and laying out the history of many decades that lead up to this horrifying event. One can't help but see that the United States has not served itself nor the people of the world well in its international politics. It is also clear that the U.S. intelligence community failed to act on plenty of warnings.

This book takes complex characters and personalizes them and shows the relationships between the moving chess pieces that played a role in history and this approach makes revisiting the events more palatable. Wright does this with a fairly unbiased, nonjudgemental, and even, matter-of-fact tone.

Note: I appreciate Mehrsa's review for her comparison to White supremacy groups and the characteristics that go into both types of extremism.

"Paranoia and fanaticism naturally occupy minds that are closed and fearful."

This reads like a thriller combined with an intergenerational saga across countries. The massive undertaking that this project was, the final result - this book - that criss-crosses across so many decades, continents and ideologies, never confuses the reader. I was also impressed by the neutral tone throughout the book - the author never takes a side, except that of logic. No one person, country or event can be blamed for the rise in Islamic terrorism - "The Looming Tower" maps the first sparks of radical Islam In Egypt and its slow rise across the Middle East and South Asia in painstaking detail. The author also goes to show how the Al-Qaeda borrowed terrorism tactics from other previously well-known terrorist groups like the Hamas and Hezbollah and added their own senseless blood thirst and megalomaniacal ambition to become a household name of terror.

Anyone who wants to know almost everything that there is to know about the rise of radical Islam and terrorism should read this book because the ideology and reasoning used by these terrorists and so called "martyrs" are described with uncompromising coherence. The media simplifies and sensationalizes terrorist acts - at the end - making those responsible seem almost mythical, far-reaching and totally abnormal. However, the machinations of the mind, twisted interpretations of religious texts, isolation and desperate economic conditions detailed by Lawrence Wright shows how even the rational, educated and so-called "Westernized" youth are radicalized.
"Revenge for many varied injustices was their constant theme, even though most of the conspirators were enjoying freedoms and opportunities in America not accorded in their own counties. "

Also, he is willing to call a spade a spade - many of the repressive views against women held by radical Islamists, especially the Taliban, come from sexual frustration. "Women were a particular target, as might be expected from men who had so little experience of their company. Clearly, Sayyid Qutb - the Islamic Scholar who arguably inspired the leaders of Al-Qaeda - comes across as an incel who railed against Western perversion seemingly from an awkward situation with a woman.

By the end of the narrative, the author proves quite convincingly that Al-Qaeda was created to serve the selfish, affluent and irrational Osama Bin Laden who saw himself as a great leader but who barely had a hand in planning or executing any of its deadly attacks. He comes across as more of a financier and pipe-dreamer than an international mastermind. Bin Laden was ambitious, but it was his lackeys who travelled across the globe to plan and bear into fruition terroristic destruction.

A more interesting arc of this book is the change in global mindset, democracy and safety that the world underwent post 9/11. We will never be the same again - stringent security measures, invasive surveillance, constant fear, fewer personal freedoms, the pervasiveness of the words "Terrorism" and "Radical Islam" and the nonsensical bloodthirst and violence of terrorism.
"The radical Islamist movement has never had a clear idea of governing, or even much interest in it, as the Taliban would conclusively demonstrate. Purification was the goal; and whenever purity is paramount, terror is close at hand."

Parallelly, the author uncovers the bureaucracy and stilted US intelligence organizations like the CIA, FBI and NSA and how interpersonal grudges and office politics allowed 9/11 to happen. Overall, as I must have implied already, this is a phenomenal, objective and fascinating read.

Excellent narrative history of the birth and rise of al-Qaeda, told mainly through multiple biographies of the key players.

This book tells thoroughly of the events and characters leading up to the terrorist attacks by al-Qaeda on 9/11/2001. It introduces us in 1948 to Sayyid Qutb, who came to the U.S. and came face-to-face with American culture; as a result of his time in the U.S., he formulated Islamic thought and a movement against America, which he saw as a "spiritual wasteland." His ideas found many followers in Egypt. The book explores movements that overlapped and often fractured, movements to overthrow the Egyptian government, to expose the Saudi royal family's decadence, movements that eventually congealed to attempt to destroy America and all that it stood for. It explores the growth of al-Qaeda into an organization capable of embassy bombings, the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen, and eventually, the attacks on the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon in 2001. We also saw the main characters of the two U.S. organizations which should have been able to stop the attacks: the FBI and the CIA, which, had they cooperated, could certainly have prevented the attacks. A very interesting and well-written read.

Informative. Exciting. Revelatory. Thought-provoking. Powerful. I could use a slew of words and phrases to describe The Looming Tower, but to no avail could I ever begin to satisfactorily convey to the proper extent exactly how magnificent this book was from start to finish.

The Looming Tower is unlike any other non-fiction book I have read thus far, for it read as though it were the work of one of literature's most prominent and accomplished storytellers of the same vein as F. Scott Fitzgerald or Edith Wharton – not necessarily in terms of writing style, but rather in sheer narrative scope and power. I was wholly captivated in a story unlike any other thanks to Wright's stellar writing and storytelling abilities. The people in the book were fleshed out so well that, at times, I nearly forgot I was reading non-fiction. From bin Laden and the al-Qaeda operatives directly involved in the terror attacks, to John O'Neill and his fellow FBI agents dedicated to the prevention of such diabolical plots, every single person was written in a humanizing fashion to such a degree that I was able to fully understand how and why the attacks on September 11 took place, and furthermore why it was not prevented. Were it not for the refined writing that made these people seemingly jump right out of the page with every sentence, the effect of the book would have been entirely lost on me, and it would have read no differently than a textbook. Truly, Wright's engrossing narrative makes such a complex historical matter exhilarating even to those who are the most averse to American history as a subject.

Not only was this book written exceptionally well, but it was also expertly researched. The investigative effort on Wright's part deserves the highest praises, for it seems as though not a single minute detail had been omitted in the telling of this harrowing American tragedy. Anything remotely related to the September 11 attacks is covered in stunning detail, but not in an overwhelming fashion that tends to bore readers. Every substantive link to the attacks was discussed from the unassuming origin of the radical Islamic movement against the United States up until the days following the collapse of the Twin Towers and destruction of the Pentagon. Not a single major moment was overlooked, much to the benefit of this book's value. What I found to be truly commendable was how objectively the author was able to present these details to the reader, seeing as how 9/11 was both heartbreaking and infuriating for any American to have to recount without constantly recalling strong emotions of anger, hatred, scorn, or bitterness at each utterance of "al-Qaeda" or "bin Laden" (I know I would not have been able to hold my tongue so well). That is not to say that Wright in any way, shape, or form sympathized with the terrorists at any point in his book due to his lack of personal input. Rather, he presented the facts from both perspectives in an unbiased and professional manner, thus making his work much more credible in the process. Anybody could write a hate-piece directed against al-Qaeda and bin Laden for the evils they have committed, but it takes an especially skilled and disciplined writer to get people to see the bigger picture of this tragedy – unabated by our personal sentiments regarding that fateful day.

At no point in the book was I emotionally detached from what was going on. I experienced a litany of emotions in response to what I was reading. I felt rage. I felt heartbreak. I felt worry, anxiety, inspiration, and wonderment. Never did I feel indifferent or apathetic to the story being told. That once again speaks to how phenomenally written The Looming Tower is.

The attacks on 9/11 have always personally affected me, despite my being only five years old at the time it took place. The fact that one of my earliest memories is coming home from school to see my mom crying while watching the news is a testament to how impactful this tragedy has been to me. That is why I am so pleased that The Looming Tower was written with such dignity and respect. This fine book opted to be an honest and informative history lesson with heart rather than be a cold attempt at prying money out of the hands of patriotic Americans yearning for that ever-so elusive answer to the question of how and why we left ourselves vulnerable to such unspeakable atrocities. Lawrence Wright accomplishes something spectacular by delivering a definitive answer to that question without pandering to the lowest common denominator. This could easily have been a manipulative cash-grab that preyed on the patriotic Americans whom 9/11 personally affected, but thankfully The Looming Tower carried itself with dignity and poise the whole way through and did each American an invaluable service in the process.

With my highest approval, I recommend this book to everyone regardless of their reading preferences. In the age of widespread terrorism, The Looming Tower educates its readers on the origins of this global affront against the civilized world and also to the general theme of how deep seated hatred can breed catastrophe if left to fester for so long. The book's teachings feel just as relevant today, if not more so, than back in 2001. The Looming Tower should be required reading for every American so that the horrors of that fateful September morning will never be forgotten.

You can be nerdy and geeky and boring about all manner of things, railway timetables, cricket, fine wine, Marvel comics, Beatles flipsides, the confectionary you used to scoff when you were little (ah the nostalgic sweetmeats of childhood, how much of a lump in your throat were they then and still are now), campy 70s sitcoms, Jean-Marie Straub movies, the best places to go backpacking in Andalucia, bootlegs of the Velvet Underground, and so on boringly and tediously.

Turns out you can be geeky and tedious about 9/11 too. But perhaps not too surprising, as 90% of this book is about that shadowy alphabet world of espionage, counter-espionage, counter-counter-espionage and lots of sweaty men trying to pluck the one shiny needle of truth from the haystack of rancid "intelligence" that the world of spy vs spy vs spy showers like golden rain bountifully, munificently, all over the place in this information-soaked fun-packed palace of stupefied over-eaters we call the western world. Three blind counter-terrorist agencies - see how they run - they all ran after the farmer's wife - which was a grave error as she knew very little about al-Qaeda, as it turned out, after some strenuous waterboarding.

Anyway, I couldn't hack it, it made me feel slightly ill. Too much stuff about two giant boys towns, one better dressed than the other one, but only slightly.

Dispiriting is not the word.

Disgusting may be.

This has been another bad-tempered rant from your friend Paul Bryant of Nottingham. He ought to know better, but he doesn't.

Thank you for your patience.

I have a morbid fascination with terrorism and the reasons people behind it do what they do, but I have always wanted to learn more about their motivations and the ties to religion. It's crucial in today's world that more of us have an understanding of why this is happening, especially with events such as 9/11. Religion, politics and foreign policy are all of interest to me, all three feature in "The Looming Tower" in a large way.

Make no mistake, this is a challenging read! It could be categorised as a "non-fiction thriller" as it is a compelling and information rich book. I also found it highly thought-provoking and an eye- opener, Lawrence Wright certainly knows his stuff. The writing is exquisite and immensely detailed from the word go. Wright has clearly done a lot of research on this topic

I had no idea that the book had been made into a TV series but I plan on watching it and seeing how it compares to this. It is a topic that more people should be interested in learning, as it does impact us all and will for the foreseeable future.

Many thanks to Penguin Books (UK) for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

يتتبع الكتاب (البرج المشيّد) قصة القاعدة منذ بدايات التنظيمات الجهادية في مصر، رابطاً بين نشأتها وفكر سيد قطب مروراً بتنظيمات الجهاد والتكفير والهجرة والجماعة الإسلامية. طبعاً كان هناك تركيز على قصة حياة أسامة بن لادن. وما يميز السرد أنه مقسم لأكثر من بيوغرافي أو قصة منفصلة ومتداخلة معاً. قصة أسرة ابن لادن. قصة الصحوة بالمملكة، قصة الجماعات الإسلامية في مصر، قصة (جون أونيل) محقق الإف بي آي المسؤول عن ملاحقة ابن لادن، قصة أفغانستان، وعلاقة أميركا بذلك كله. ما يميز الكتاب هو ربطه المتقن والسلس بين القصص التي نعرفها كلنا. بما فيها العمليات الشهيرة ضد الأهداف الأميركية ودور أميركا في السعودية وأفغانستان والسودان والبلقان وإيران.. إلخ. مع حقائق مدهشة بخصوص الأفغان العرب والجهاديين. ستخرج من الكتاب بانطباعين: أولاً أن أسامة بن لادن قد تم استغلاله من قبل الجماعات المصرية (بالذات الظواهري) . أنه قد تم التعامل معه كمجرد مصدر تمويل لمشروعهم هم ثم ولما فشل هذاالمشروع قاموا بتبني فكرته المجنونة (القاعدة) وتجييرها لصالح رؤاهم هم. هذا لا يبرئه لكنه ينزع عنه معظم هالة العظمة التي تحوطه. ثانياً: يحمل الكتاب على أجهزة الأمن الأميركية ويكشف مقدار البيروقراطية والعلاقة التنافسية الصبيانية بين رؤوسه والتي سيطرت عليها والتي قادتها في النهاية للفشل الذريع في تفادي أحداث ١١ سبتمبر برغم كل المؤشرات الواضحة وبالرغم من تحذيرات الاستخبارات السعودية بالذات.. اليمين الأميركي المتطرف والمحافظون الجدد ليسوا سوى حلقة صغيرة وأخيرة في سلسلة طويلة من الأحداث والشخوص. الكتاب حافل أيضاً بتفاصيل علاقات الأشخاص بالأحداث.. جمال خاشقجي وجمال خليفة وتركي الفيصل وحسن الترابي وغيرهم كثير. هذا كتاب لا يكشف أسراراً لكنه يقدم رؤية شاملة للصورة.

I learned a lot about the rise of al-Qaeda. I enjoyed reading about some history that I remember :)

How to Change the World.

September 11, 2001 is one of those pivotal days in history, where I was actually alive, remember where I and watched events unfold. I like everyone around the world saw the world change. Lawrence Wright’s Pulitzer Prize-winning book is an extraordinary work of investigative journalism that offers a deep and gripping exploration of the events, ideologies, and individuals that culminated in those devastating terrorist attacks. Meticulously researched and written with clarity and insight, Wright paints a vivid picture of the complex forces that shaped Al-Qaeda and its rise to infamy.

One of the book’s most notable strengths is its ability to humanise the story. Wright delves into the lives of key figures such as Sayyid Qutb, Osama bin Laden, and Ayman al-Zawahiri, offering nuanced portraits that trace their radicalization and ideological evolution. He also highlights the role of American and international intelligence failures, underscoring how bureaucratic rivalries and miscommunication hindered the ability to prevent the attacks.

Wright’s narrative skill shines in his ability to weave together seemingly disparate threads—ranging from the history of the Muslim Brotherhood to the intricacies of US counterterrorism efforts—into a cohesive and compelling story. His clear prose makes complex topics accessible without oversimplification, making this book both informative and engaging. The book underscores the devastating consequences of ideological extremism and the tragic repercussions of institutional dysfunction. Wright also explores the tension between modernity and traditionalism in the Islamic world, a recurring theme that illuminates the broader cultural and political context of Al-Qaeda’s ideology.

While ‘The Looming Tower’ is a masterful work, it has received some criticism for its heavy writing style. Wright’s commitment to detail, while commendable, can occasionally overwhelm, particularly for those unfamiliar with the region’s history or the intricacies of global politics. However, this level of detail is also what makes the book such a definitive account and for me, what makes it brilliant.

Overall, ‘The Looming Tower’ is an essential read for anyone seeking to understand the roots of modern terrorism and the events leading up to 9/11. Lawrence Wright’s thorough research and compelling storytelling create a work that is both a historical document and a cautionary tale. It’s a sobering reminder of how ideology, history, and human error can converge to shape world events in profound ways. The book is definitely worthy of the Pulitzer Prize and I highly recommend you read it.