The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11

For most Americans, al Qaeda began to exist on September 11, 2001. Since then, we've been frantically piecing together shards of information about this secretive extremist movement. But connecting the dots isn't always easy. Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower translates data into meaning by tracing the rise of the group through the lives of four men: two terrorists and two men who tracked them. Wright explores the complex relationship of the bin Laden family and Saudi Arabia's royal family. Perhaps even more significantly, he reveals the agency insularity that almost certainly prevented the thwarting of the 9/11 plot.