The most recommended terrorism books

Who picked these books? Meet our 98 experts.

98 authors created a book list connected to terrorism, and here are their favorite terrorism books.
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Book cover of Crime School: Money Laundering: True Crime Meets the World of Business and Finance

Mónica Ramírez Chimal Author Of Don't Let Them Wash, Nor Dry!: A Simple and Easy Guide to Protect Your Company from the Risk of Money Laundering

From my list on tackling money laundering risk.

Why am I passionate about this?

The prevention of money laundering caught my attention, and at that time, with so little information on the market, I decided to write my first book so that more people can protect themselves from this crime. I have a gift: explain complicated topics in an easy way. This has helped me to write several articles on different topics in international magazines. I’m a passionate-effective trainer who believes that helping people to grow helps to make this world better. It’s my legacy! I like to do the right thing; take this as a reliable fact: I consult my own book and articles written. I hope to help you grow too!

Mónica's book list on tackling money laundering risk

Mónica Ramírez Chimal Why did Mónica love this book?

When I attended an international conference, I had the opportunity to be at Chris Mathers' session: I simply loved his presentation. He gave me as a gift his book, which is a great guide to knowing how organized crime operates in real life since it is written using his experience as an undercover policeman. He explains in detail the techniques seen/used and what he experienced. The way it is written (in simple language and with humor) makes you feel interested and read it quickly. And the best thing: it will also help you so that you are not a victim of organized crime or an accomplice in money laundering. It is one of the few books that reflect the real world of money laundering; bravo!

By Chris Mathers,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Crime School as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

The chilling details of cleaning blood money.

What is money laundering? How does it work? And why is it such a threat to any democratic society?

International terrorism has focused federal and state law-enforcement's attention on the shadowy world of money laundering. While the media has examined money laundering, the topic is still little understood by the public.

In Crime School: Money Laundering, a twenty year law enforcement veteran of financial crime explains this felony in simple terms. Written anecdotally, the book describes what money laundering is and how the crimes behind it fit together.

Organized criminals operating both domestically…


Book cover of The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11

Simon Henderson Author Of After King Fahd: Succession in Saudi Arabia

From my list on understanding modern Saudi Arabia.

Why am I passionate about this?

British by birth, American by naturalization, Simon Henderson started in journalism as a trainee at the BBC before becoming its correspondent in Pakistan. Joining the Financial Times a year later, he was promptly sent to Iran to cover the 1979 Islamic revolution and went back again for the U.S. embassy hostage crisis. He now analyzes the Gulf states, energy, and the nuclear programs of Iran and Pakistan as the Baker fellow and director of the Bernstein Program on Gulf and Energy Policy at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

Simon's book list on understanding modern Saudi Arabia

Simon Henderson Why did Simon love this book?

With this year’s 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, this book, published on the 10th anniversary, is a useful reminder of the events of that day and the subsequent investigations of why it happened.

The civil case against Saudi Arabia for alleged complicity with the 19 hijackers, 15 of whom were Saudi, continues, albeit with little publicity. That is likely to change. Osama bin Laden’s own legal reckoning was less formal of course – the Saudi whose name has become synonymous with terrorism died in a hail of bullets from U.S. Navy SEALs. (I can also recommend the movie of that event Zero Dark Thirty.)

By Anthony Summers, Robbyn Swan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Eleventh Day as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE
 
For most living Americans, September 11, 2001, is the darkest date in the nation’s history. But what exactly happened on 9/11? Could it have been prevented? And what remains unresolved? Here is the first panoramic, authoritative account of that tragic day—from the first brutal actions of the hijackers to our government’s flawed response; from the untruths told afterward by U.S. officials to the “elephant in the room” of the 9/11 Commission’s report—the clues that point to foreign involvement. New York Times bestselling authors Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan write with access to thousands of recently…


Book cover of The Circle: The Complete Volumes of Black, Red, White, & Green

Sarah Ashwood Author Of Land Beyond the Sunset

From my list on portal fantasy adventures.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been fascinated by fairytales since I was a little girl, watching Disney movies with my grandparents. As I grew older, I read fairy tales almost insatiably and was also drawn to mythology and folklore of every variety. When I discovered the fantasy genre, in my early teens, it was like coming home…a genre that combined all of the elements I’d grown up devouring: fairytales, mythology, and folklore. My love of fantasy developed my love of portal fantasy—the idea that other realms, other worlds, other dimensions exist, and we can travel between or to them. I wrote my first portal fantasy novel at eighteen and have continued writing fantasy and portal fantasy novels ever since. 

Sarah's book list on portal fantasy adventures

Sarah Ashwood Why did Sarah love this book?

Christian/Inspirational fantasy and thriller with a solid portal fantasy plot. I read several Ted Dekker books and series when I was a teen, but this one stood out to me because of the notion of two realms and how a protagonist could be a normal human being in one realm, Earth, and a savior, a leader, a “chosen one” in the other. 

By Ted Dekker, Ted Dekker,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Circle as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Ted Dekker’s bestselling and most beloved series—together in one volume. It’s an epic tale of evil and rescue, betrayal and love, and a terrorist threat unlike anything the human race has ever known.

Thomas Hunter is an unlikely hero who finds himself pulled between two worlds. In our reality, he works in a coffeehouse. In the other, he becomes a battle-scarred general leading a band of warriors known as the Circle.

Every time he falls asleep in one reality, he wakes in the other—and both worlds are facing catastrophic disaster. In one world, Thomas must race to outwit sadistic terrorists…


Book cover of The Just War Revisited

Vicente Medina Author Of Terrorism Unjustified: The Use and Misuse of Political Violence

From my list on terrorism and why it matters.

Why am I passionate about this?

I was born and spent my childhood living under a tyrannical regime that indiscriminately used violence against innocent civilians. Such cruelty made a lasting impact on me. For the past thirty-two years, I have been teaching philosophy at Seton Hall University. Given my childhood experiences, I have chosen to write on issues related to social and political philosophy and applied ethics. After the catastrophic event of 9/11, I wondered about the motivations, explanations, justifications, or excuses for this kind of unprecedented act of war against civilians. I have spent a great deal of my research exploring the relationship between justified acts of war and terrorist acts.

Vicente's book list on terrorism and why it matters

Vicente Medina Why did Vicente love this book?

O’Donovan offers us a short but elegantly written book on just war from antiquity to the present. He convincingly argues in favor of the foundational role that religious and theological ideas going back to St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas play in the development of a Christian just war approach. He underscores that what we have come to understand as “just war theory” is a misnomer. There is no such thing as just war theory but rather a proposal of practical reason to develop good judgments in the light of armed conflict or war. The backbone of these good judgments is that the deliberate killing of innocent noncombatants is never morally justified. This prohibition remains constant whether we are dealing with counterinsurgency, the development and use of weapons of mass destruction, or terrorism. 

By Oliver O'Donovan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Just War Revisited as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Leading political theologian Oliver O'Donovan here takes a fresh look at some traditional moral arguments about war. Modern Christians differ widely on this issue. A few hold that absolute pacifism is the only viable Christian position, others subscribe in various ways to concepts of 'just war' developed out of a Western tradition that arose from the legacies of Augustine and Aquinas, while others still adopt more pragmatically realist postures. Professor O'Donovan re-examines questions of contemporary urgency including the use of biological and nuclear weapons, military intervention, economic sanctions, war crimes trials and the roles of the Geneva Convention, international conventions…


Book cover of Disciplining Terror: How Experts Invented 'Terrorism'

Daniel S. Chard Author Of Nixon's War at Home: The FBI, Leftist Guerrillas, and the Origins of Counterterrorism

From my list on the history of terrorism and counterterrorism.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m a history professor at Western Washington University. I first got interested in understanding social movements, power, and political violence in the late 1990s and early ‘00s as a young anarchist. Later, while studying history in graduate school, I realized that much of what I thought I knew about the FBI, violence, and radical movements of the 1960s and ‘70s was inaccurate. I don’t have any magic solutions to the problems facing humanity, but I believe that studying history—including the history of political violence—can help us better understand our present moment and how we might build a more just and peaceful world.

Daniel's book list on the history of terrorism and counterterrorism

Daniel S. Chard Why did Daniel love this book?

This book turned the field of Terrorism Studies on its head. Historical sociologist Lisa Stampnitzky demonstrates that the legion of terrorism experts who rose to prominence in North America, Western Europe, and Israel in the 1970s were not neutral analysts of political violence. Rather, through their intellectual work, much of it funded with government grants, terrorism scholars helped construct the contemporary meaning of terrorism as a threat to society fundamentally different from other forms of violence, crime, and political activity. This book made it clear that we can’t understand the history of “terrorism” without analyzing the history of the term itself, and how the use of this term in law, academia, politics, international relations, and popular culture has shaped political power and violent conflicts between states and insurgents.

By Lisa Stampnitzky,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Disciplining Terror as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Since 9/11 we have been told that terrorists are pathological evildoers, beyond our comprehension. Before the 1970s, however, hijackings, assassinations, and other acts we now call 'terrorism' were considered the work of rational strategic actors. Disciplining Terror examines how political violence became 'terrorism', and how this transformation ultimately led to the current 'war on terror'. Drawing upon archival research and interviews with terrorism experts, Lisa Stampnitzky traces the political and academic struggles through which experts made terrorism, and terrorism made experts. She argues that the expert discourse on terrorism operates at the boundary - itself increasingly contested - between science…


Book cover of Incendiary

Dwight Okita Author Of The Hope Store

From my list on weird wonderful books to read in one weekend.

Why am I passionate about this?

A Chicago writer, I've always been drawn to quirky books. My first novel, The Prospect of My Arrival, was a finalist in Amazon's novel contest and centers on a human embryo that is allowed to preview the world. My current work-in-progress is nonfiction. The Invention of Fireflies is a memoir of the magical and monstrous moments of my life. Varied day jobs have included being a professional cuddler, web designer, and caregiver. Affirmative Entertainment represents me for possible movie/TV projects. My work was selected for inclusion in the HBO New Writers Project, The Norton Introduction to Literature, many textbooks, and anthologies.

Dwight's book list on weird wonderful books to read in one weekend

Dwight Okita Why did Dwight love this book?

If ever there was a book that cast a spell over me, it was Incendiary. The novel is written as a letter to Osama Bin Laden; the letter writer is a woman whose husband and son were killed in a terrorist attack. How male author Chris Cleave manages to speak in the voice of a heartbreakingly traumatized, possibly drunk woman is a true act of ventriloquism. I could imagine the whole thing performed on a black box stage as a monologue and it would be riveting. The heroine's rage is understandable throughout the course of the story. What is surprising is her grace, her sense of humor, even her tenderness toward the man who destroyed her family. At one point she urges him to "stop making boy-shaped holes in the world."

By Chris Cleave,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Incendiary as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

You aren't stupid.
You know there's no such thing as a perfect mother.
Plenty of other books will tell you there is, but this one won't lie to you.

I was weak and I cheated and I was punished, but my god I loved my child through all of it.
Love means you never break, and it means you're stronger than the things they do to you. I know this is true because I have been through fire, and I am the proof that love survives.

I am not a perfect mother but I will tell you the perfect truth,…


Book cover of Epidemic Empire: Colonialism, Contagion, and Terror, 1817–2020

Pamela K. Gilbert Author Of Mapping the Victorian Social Body

From my list on how epidemics relate to bigger narratives.

Why am I passionate about this?

I began college as a science major, but then switched to literature from a minor to my major. In graduate school, as I worked on my dissertation (which became my first book), I found that metaphors of the body and health were everywhere in the literary field in the mid-nineteenth century. Suffice it to say that the sciences, including the rapid development of modern medicine, are both fundamental to this period and deeply shape its literary culture. In Mapping the Victorian Social Body, I became fascinated with the history of data visualization. Disease mapping completely transformed the ways we understand space and how our bodies exist within it.

Pamela's book list on how epidemics relate to bigger narratives

Pamela K. Gilbert Why did Pamela love this book?

This book begins with cholera and the Indian Rebellion of 1857 and vampire novels, and then moves forward in time to examine the longstanding continued use of epidemic disease as a metaphor to describe political revolt and terror. Kolb argues that the colonial state has long positioned itself as a hygienic "doctor" treating political "disease," and shows clearly why understanding political activity within the frame of disease is so damaging. Moving through the mid-twentieth century with Camus and Algeria, to Rushdie, 2001, and the shameful history of the US torture memo, Kolb's argument is both historically sweeping and persuasive.   

By Anjuli Fatima Raza Kolb,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Epidemic Empire as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Terrorism is a cancer, an infection, an epidemic, a plague. For more than a century, this metaphor has figured insurgent violence as contagion in order to contain its political energies. In Epidemic Empire, Anjuli Fatima Raza Kolb shows that this trope began in responses to the Indian Mutiny of 1857 and tracks its tenacious hold through 9/11 and beyond. The result is the first book-length study to approach the global war on terror from a postcolonial literary perspective.

Raza Kolb assembles a diverse archive from colonial India, imperial Britain, French and independent Algeria, the postcolonial Islamic diaspora, and the neo-imperial…


Book cover of The Bomber

Brenda Chapman Author Of Blind Date: A Hunter and Tate Mystery

From my list on crime fiction with intriguing lead characters.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’ve been addicted to reading mysteries and crime fiction since I was a kid, and I naturally fell into writing in these genres—I’m currently in the midst of penning my fourth series! There’s nothing better than discovering a new, well-written series and following along with interesting, complicated main characters over several books. These favourite recommendations of mine will take you to Ireland, Scotland, South Africa, Sweden, and my very own Canada without ever having to leave home. Hopefully, you’ll discover some new authors, and their main characters will bring you as much enjoyment as they’ve given me. 

Brenda's book list on crime fiction with intriguing lead characters

Brenda Chapman Why did Brenda love this book?

Annika Bengtzon is another strong woman reporter working in a man’s world. She’s married to a man very involved in his own career. They have two children and Annika struggles to balance chasing after a story with looking after the kids and keeping house. Most women can relate to her very real pressures and will empathize with all that she goes through on the home front. I liked her tenacity and intelligence and almost reckless pursuit of a killer. Marklund is Swedish and I enjoy learning more about the country—another cold, northern setting. Her character develops over the series with gritty crimes at the centre of the stories.

By Liza Marklund,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Bomber as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Seven days. Three killings. And one woman who knows too much...

Crime reporter Annika Bengtzon is woken by a phonecall in the early hours of a wintry December morning. An explosion has ripped apart the Olympic Stadium. And a victim has been blown to pieces.

As Annika delves into the details of the bombing and the background of the victim, there is a second explosion. These chilling crimes could be her biggest news story yet. When her police source reveals they are hot on the heels of the bomber, Annika is guaranteed an exclusive with her name on it.

But…


Book cover of Proving Ground

Mary Martinez Author Of Disappear

From my list on thriller books with edge of your seat suspense.

Why am I passionate about this?

I’m passionate about any suspense or thriller book. Even better, if I can’t figure out the ending, I love it when I believe I have the killer or bad guy figured out, and I’m wrong. I have read all of the books I recommended. They were page-turners and kept me on the edge of my seat. I loved reading every single one.

Mary's book list on thriller books with edge of your seat suspense

Mary Martinez Why did Mary love this book?

Stanalei Fletcher has a way of making damaged characters likeable and having the reader applaud as they grow. I love reading her books. This is the first of a series, and believe me, I was hooked after I finished it. Caitlin has been trying to forget Mac for two years. Now, they find themselves following a lead on a plot to steal deadly pathogens from a nearby biolab. 

I loved the dangerous situations they ran into and how they worked together to escape a raging fire in time to stop the terrorists. This is one of my go-to authors because of the security aspect. Northstar Security agents work independently, hired by the private sector, to recover stolen items, technology, or kidnappings. I highly recommend it!

By Stanalei Fletcher,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Proving Ground as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Screw-ups don’t get second chances. That’s what Caitlin Malone believes when she returns to Oregon after failing her first Northstar Security assignment. When she inadvertently stumbles across a plot to steal deadly pathogens from the bio-lab near her hometown, she sees a chance at redemption. USDA Forest Ranger, John ‘Mac’ MacAlistair, doesn’t want to babysit the motorcycle club holding their annual rally in his national forest. To make matters worse, Caitlin is attending the rally with Mac’s estranged uncle. Having her home again brings up feelings that are better left buried. It’s early September. Any spark will send the dry…


Book cover of Salvador

Ryan Murdock Author Of Vagabond Dreams: Road Wisdom from Central America

From my list on Central America.

Why am I passionate about this?

Ryan Murdock is Editor-at-Large (Europe) for Outpost, Canada’s national travel magazine, and a weekly columnist for The Shift, an independent Maltese news portal. His feature articles have taken him across a remote stretch of Canada’s Northwest Territories on foot, into the Central Sahara in search of prehistoric rock art, and around Wales with a drug squad detective hunting for the real King Arthur.

Ryan's book list on Central America

Ryan Murdock Why did Ryan love this book?

An account of El Salvador’s era of “disappearances” from one of the best non-fiction writers of her generation. Didion interviews the president, visits smoldering body dumps on the edge of San Salvador, and captures the atmosphere of revolution, civil strife, and Soviet-American rivalry that afflicted El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala in the 1980s. Essential reading for understanding the scars that continue to plague the region today.

By Joan Didion,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Salvador as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

El Salvador, 1982, is at the height of a ghastly civil war. Joan Didion travels from battlefields to body dumps, interviews a puppet president, considers the distinctly Salvadorean meaning of the verb 'to disappear' and trains a merciless eye not only on the terror there but also on the depredations and evasions of US foreign policy. Salvador is a restless and unflinching masterclass in the art of reportage by one of the great literary stylists of the twentieth century.


Book cover of Crime School: Money Laundering: True Crime Meets the World of Business and Finance
Book cover of The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11
Book cover of The Circle: The Complete Volumes of Black, Red, White, & Green

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