The Way of the Strangers: Encounters with the Islamic State - Hardcover

Wood, Graeme

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0241240115 ISBN 13: 9780241240113

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2016

Synopsis

NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017

A radical rethinking of what ISIS is and what it really wants

From Graeme Wood, author of the explosive Atlantic cover story "What ISIS Really Wants," comes the definitive book on the history, psychology, character, and aims of the Islamic State. Based on Wood's unprecedented access to supporters, recruiters, and high-ranking members of the most infamous jihadist group in the world, The Way of the Strangers is a riveting, fast-paced deep dive into the apocalyptic dogma that informs the group's worldview, from the ideas that motivate it, to the "fatwa factory" that produces its laws, to its very specific plans for the future. By accepting that ISIS truly believes the end is nigh, we can understand its strategy-and predict what it will do next.

About this title

Review

Gripping, sobering and revelatory ... Unrivalled (Tom Holland New Statesman)

[A] hugely important book ... Indispensable (David Aaronovitch The Times)

Fascinating ... Highly readable ... The western military with its superior firepower can bomb Isis out of existence in Raqqa and Mosul as much as it likes, but we won't destroy the ideology if we don't understand what it is. This book goes a long way towards filling that gap (Christina Lamb Sunday Times)

Graeme Wood is America's foremost interpreter of ISIS as a world-historical phenomenon. In The Way of the Strangers, he has given us the definitive work to date on the origins, plans, and meaning of the world's most dangerous terrorist organization. Wood is a fearless, relentlessly curious and magnetically interesting writer who takes us on an intellectual and theological journey to the darkest places on the planet, and yet he manages to do this without despairing for our collective future. This book is a triumph of journalism. (Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor in Chief Atlantic)

Indispensable and gripping .... From Mosul to Melbourne, from Cairo to Tokyo, from London to Oslo, from Connecticut to California: Graeme Wood's quest to understand the Islamic State is a round-the-world journey to the end of the night. As individuals, the men he encounters are misfits, even losers. But their millenarian Islamist ideology makes them the most dangerous people on the planet. (Niall Ferguson)

Over the course of its short life, the Islamic State has inspired millions, thousands of whom have rallied to its cause in search of a glorious death. But why? Are its devotees nothing more than sadists and two-bit mafiosi for whom religion is a fig leaf, and who will fade away in the face of military defeat? In this essential book, Graeme Wood draws on over a decade of reporting to demolish these and other comforting deceptions. The Islamic State's devotees are true believers indeed, and their nightmarish vision will haunt our world for decades to come, regardless of what happens on the battlefield. (Reihan Salam, Executive Editor National Review)

From the Author

Graeme Wood is a contributing editor to The Atlantic and lecturer in political science at Yale University. His work has also appeared in The New Yorker, The American Scholar, The New Republic, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Wall Street Journal and the International Herald Tribune.

Edition details

• Publisher: Allen Lane
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 0241240115
• ISBN 13: 9780241240113
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 352