Enjoy fast, free delivery, exclusive deals, and award-winning movies & TV shows with Prime
Try Prime and start saving today with fast, free delivery
Amazon Prime includes:
Fast, FREE Delivery is available to Prime members. To join, select "Try Amazon Prime and start saving today with Fast, FREE Delivery" below the Add to Cart button.
Amazon Prime members enjoy:- Cardmembers earn 5% Back at Amazon.com with a Prime Credit Card.
- Unlimited Free Two-Day Delivery
- Streaming of thousands of movies and TV shows with limited ads on Prime Video.
- A Kindle book to borrow for free each month - with no due dates
- Listen to over 2 million songs and hundreds of playlists
- Unlimited photo storage with anywhere access
Important: Your credit card will NOT be charged when you start your free trial or if you cancel during the trial period. If you're happy with Amazon Prime, do nothing. At the end of the free trial, your membership will automatically upgrade to a monthly membership.
$10.83$10.83
FREE delivery: Thursday, April 4 on orders over $35.00 shipped by Amazon.
Ships from: Amazon
Sold by: Shakespeare Book House
$8.14
Other Sellers on Amazon
& FREE Shipping
87% positive over last 12 months
& FREE Shipping
99% positive over last 12 months
FREE Shipping
Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.
Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.
Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.
Audible sample Sample
Follow the author
OK
Holy War Inc. Inside the Secret World of Osama Bin Laden Hardcover – November 13, 2001
Purchase options and add-ons
-
Print length283 pages
-
LanguageEnglish
-
PublisherFree Press
-
Publication dateNovember 13, 2001
-
Dimensions6.44 x 0.98 x 9.6 inches
-
ISBN-100743205022
-
ISBN-13978-0743205023
Similar items that may deliver to you quickly
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
As CNN terrorism analyst Bergen avows, this journalistic study of Osama bin Laden and the al-Qaeda terrorist network was rushed to publication and thus lacks some editorial smoothness in its delivery. Nevertheless, this book offers a mature, balanced description of bin Laden's background; a concise summary of the organization of the al-Qaeda terrorist network as it has developed in the Middle East, Europe, and America; and a brief narrative of terrorist events through September 11. Bergen asserts that bin Laden's hostility emanates from his religious opposition to an American military presence in Saudi Arabia, American policy toward Israel, and the "un-Islamic" behavior of Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Bergen personalizes his story with an account of his 1997 interview with bin Laden and the contacts he made with bin Laden's militant Islamic associates. Here, an interesting story drifts a bit from bin Laden to accounts of al-Qaeda operations. Bergen has, however, pulled together a significant amount of solid information, which he presents with perception and without grand swings of passion. This is an important initial glimpse of bin Laden, al-Qaeda, and the associated Taliban of Afghanistan and is strongly recommended for all libraries. John F. Riddick, Central Michigan Univ. Lib., Mt. Pleasant
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"Even the most attentive of post-Sept. 11 media junkies will learn something new from reading...Bergen's biography of...bin Laden." -- St. Petersburg Times, December 2, 2001
"The only book you need to read about bin Laden...Lively, literate and authoritative--equal parts journalism, history and...whimsical travelogue." -- Washington Post Book World, November 11, 2001
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Free Press; F First Edition, First Printing (November 13, 2001)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 283 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0743205022
- ISBN-13 : 978-0743205023
- Item Weight : 0.035 ounces
- Dimensions : 6.44 x 0.98 x 9.6 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,509,046 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,200 in African Politics
- #1,597 in Terrorism (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Peter Bergen is a journalist, documentary producer, think tank executive, professor, and author of seven books, three of which were New York Times bestsellers and four of which were named among the non-fiction books of the year by the Washington Post. The books have been translated into twenty-four languages and have been turned into four documentaries, two of which were nominated for Emmys and one of which won an Emmy.
He is Vice President for Global Studies & Fellows, Director of the International Security Program at New America in Washington D.C.; Professor of Practice at the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University, where he is the co-director of the Center on the Future of War; CNN’s national security analyst, Host of the Audible podcast "In the Room with Peter Bergen," and a fellow at Fordham University’s Center on National Security. Bergen is on the editorial board of Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, a leading scholarly journal in the field has testified before multiple congressional committees about Afghanistan, Pakistan, al-Qaeda, drones, ISIS and other national security issues. He is a member of the Homeland Security Experts Group and writes a weekly column for CNN.com. He has held teaching positions at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.
In 2021 Bergen published The Rise and Fall of Osama bin Laden. It was named one of the best nonfiction books of the year by the Los Angeles Times and Kirkus Reviews. The New York Times described it as “Meticulously documented, fluidly written and replete with riveting detail… Equally revealing about the Americans and their pursuit of him.”
In 2019, he published Trump and His Generals: The Cost of Chaos, which was revised and updated for the 2022 paperback The Cost of Chaos: The Trump Administration and the World. The Washington Post described it as “the best single account of Trump’s foreign policy to date.”
United States of Jihad: Investigating America’s Homegrown Terrorists was published in 2016. It was named one of the best non-fiction books of 2016 by the Washington Post. Director Greg Barker adapted the book for the HBO film Homegrown: The Counter-Terror Dilemma.
A previous book, a New York Times bestseller, was Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden, from 9/11 to Abbottabad. The book was translated into eight languages, and HBO produced a documentary based on it. The film, for which Bergen was the executive producer, was in the Sundance Film 2013 competition, and it won the Emmy for best documentary in 2013. The Washington Post named Manhunt one of the best non-fiction books of 2012, and The Guardian named it one of the key books on Islamist extremism. The Sunday Times (UK) named it the best current affairs book of 2012, and The Times (UK) named it one of the best non-fiction books of 2012. The book was awarded the Overseas Press Club Cornelius Ryan Award for best non-fiction book of 2012 on international affairs. Bergen was awarded the Stephen Ambrose History Award in 2014.
Together with his wife Tresha Mabile he produced a film for National Geographic Television, “American War Generals,” which aired in 2014. They also produced "Legion of Brothers" for CNN Films, which premiered at Sundance in 2017.
His 2011 New York Times bestseller was The Longest War: The Enduring Conflict between America and Al-Qaeda. New York Times book reviewer Michiko Kakutani writes, “For readers interested in a highly informed, wide-angled, single-volume briefing on the war on terror so far, “The Longest War” is clearly that essential book.” Tom Ricks, also writing in the Times, described the book as “stunning.” Longest War won the $30,000 Gold Prize for best book on the Middle East of 2011 from the Washington Institute. Newsweek and the Guardian named Longest War as one of the key books about terrorism of the past decade. And Amazon, Kirkus, and Foreign Policy named Longest War as one of the best books of 2011.
His previous book was “The Osama bin Laden I Know: An Oral History of al Qaeda’s Leader” (Free Press, 2006). It was named one of the best non-fiction books of 2006 by The Washington Post. “The Osama bin Laden I Know” was translated into French, Spanish and Polish, and CNN produced a two hour documentary, “In the Footsteps of bin Laden,” based on the book. Bergen was one of the producers of the CNN documentary, which was named the best documentary of 2006 by the Society of Professional Journalists and was nominated for an Emmy. Bergen is also the author of Holy War, Inc.: Inside the Secret World of Bin Laden. (Free Press, 2001). Holy War, Inc. was a New York Times bestseller, has been translated into eighteen languages and was named one of the best non-fiction books of 2001 by The Washington Post. A documentary based on Holy War, Inc., which aired on National Geographic Television, was nominated for an Emmy in 2002. Bergen was the recipient of the 2000 Leonard Silk Journalism Fellowship and was the Pew Journalist in Residence at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University in 2001 while writing Holy War, Inc. He was a fellow at New York University’s Center on Law & Security between 2003 and 2011.
Talibanistan: Negotiating the Borders Between Terror, Politics, and Religion is a collection of essays about the Taliban that Bergen edited with Katherine Tiedemann that was published by Oxford University Press in 2013. The New York Review of Books described the book as “a frequently brilliant collection of essays by different experts on the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” Cambridge University Press published Drone Wars: Transforming Conflict, Law, and Policy in 2014 which Bergen edited with Daniel Rothenberg, in which a variety of experts consider how armed drones are reshaping warfare and the legal norms that surround it.
Bergen has written about al-Qaeda, Afghanistan, Pakistan, ISIS, counterterrorism, homeland security and countries around the Middle East for a range of American newspapers and magazines including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Foreign Affairs, The Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, TIME, The Nation, The National Interest, Mother Jones, Newsweek, Washington Times and Vanity Fair. His story on extraordinary rendition for Mother Jones was part of a package of stories nominated for a 2008 National Magazine Award. He has also written for newspapers and magazines around the world such as The Guardian, The Times, The Daily Telegraph, International Herald Tribune, Prospect, El Mundo, La Repubblica, The National, Der Spiegel, Die Welt and Focus. And he has worked as a correspondent or producer for multiple documentaries that have aired on National Geographic, Discovery and CNN. He was the editor of the South Asia Channel and the South Asia Daily, online publications of Foreign Policy magazine for many years. The AfPak Channel for which Bergen was the editor was nominated in 2011 for a National Magazine Award for Best Online Department.
In 1997, as a producer for CNN, Bergen produced bin Laden’s first television interview, in which he declared war against the United States for the first time to a Western audience. In 1994 he won the Overseas Press Club Edward R. Murrow award for best foreign affairs documentary for the CNN program “Kingdom of Cocaine,” which was also nominated for an Emmy. Bergen co-produced the CNN documentary Terror Nation which traced the links between Afghanistan and the bombers who attacked the World Trade Center for the first time in 1993. The documentary, which was shot in Afghanistan during the civil war there and aired in 1994, concluded that the country would be the source of additional anti-Western terrorism. From 1998 to 1999 Bergen worked as a correspondent-producer for CNN. He was program editor for “CNN Impact,” a co-production of CNN and TIME, from 1997 to 1998.
Previously he worked for CNN as a producer on a wide variety of international and U.S. national stories. From 1985 to 1990 he worked for ABC News in New York. In 1983 he traveled to Pakistan for the first time with two friends to make a documentary about the Afghan refugees fleeing the Soviet invasion of their country. The subsequent documentary, Refugees of Faith, was shown on Channel 4 (UK).
Bergen has a degree in Modern History from New College, Oxford University. He won an Open Scholarship when he went up to New College in 1981. Before that he attended Ampleforth. He was born in Minneapolis in 1962 and was raised in London.
He is married to the documentary director/producer Tresha Mabile. Her web site can be found here http://treshamabile.com/index.html. They have a son and a daughter.
Customer reviews
Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzed reviews to verify trustworthiness.
Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon-
Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.
But rest assured: Holy War, Inc. is THE book to understand Osama bin Laden and the terror war -- and it's a pleasure to read.
It has the solid information. And it is written in a highly compelling style, so much so that you'll hate to put it down. The bulk of the work on it was completed in August 2001 so it wasn't written quickly to cash in on the tragedy. It represents four years of solid investigative reporting, written by a journalist who truly KNOWS how to write...so you want to turn the page and read some more.
I firmly believe the stylistic pluses of this book can't be ignored for anyone who wants to find out more about Osama bin Laden and the new post-Sept. 11 world in which we all live. I personally have read --and suffered -- through some of the leading books on this subject. Although I'm a former journalist and no dummy (well, technically: I am now a fulltime ventriloquist)I had to drink lots of coffee to plow through some of these other books. And when I put some of these books down I wanted to LEAVE THEM THERE.
Bergen, CNN's terrorism expert, clearly has done his homework -- and presented it exceedingly well. This book clearly works highly successfully on SEVERAL LEVELS:
a)A vividly described account of how he interviewed key figures in the Jihadist terrorism network, including bin Laden himself. He describes traveling on the land, how key players look, and their attitudes. When you read these accounts, intricate word pictures are painted in your mind. It's as if you are THERE.
His description of Peshawar, Pakistan: "Seeking some relief from the noise and pollution, I paid a visit to the leafy graveyard where dozens of British officers and soldiers were buried."
On his meeting with bin Laden:"He is a tall man, well over six feet, his face dominated by an aquiline nose....he walked with a cane and seemed tired, less like a swaggering revolutionary than a Muslim ascetic...Those around him treated him with the utmost deference..."
b)Boilerplate material. The facts, figures and histories of some of these folks, their groups, their funding, and the countries (one less, as of this writing...) in which they overtly and covertly operate. All presented in an easy-to-read, journalistic style.
c)New investigative info: How bin Laden lives, travels and communicates with cells. Since 9/11 some of this material has been borrowed by other media as part of research -- but it has never been better presented than in this book.
d)A context in which readers can get some idea of what comes next. Indeed, the book came out right after 9/11 and in in the book's afterward Bergen states "we can be certain that al-Quaeda is planning another attack on an American target in a place no one expects."
But American citizens -- and policy makers -- should be able to anticipate things (as well as they can anticipate things) a lot better by reading Bergen's masterful, can't-put-it-down Holy War, Inc. A MUST read if you want to know what's really going on and how a lot of it started.
'Holy War, Inc' is, first, a well-written, well-researched book, the product of four years of hard work on the author's part. So, naturally, it is comprised largely of substantial, firsthand information (though it does reference several third-party sources in its discourse, some of them questionable and "official"). In the text's favor, I found it to be mostly balanced and logical, if with its moments of bias and jumped-to conclusions (these were, at least, at a minimum, and failed at spoiling the rest of the book). Much can be said about the events, people, and circumstances recounted in this brief-yet-broad book, as to be a great study in humanity at large; however, the most important and relevant of the subjects visited is the clash of worlds that lay behind much of the violence and conflict plaguing today's global stage. By presenting the perspective and motives of the Muslim world (if there can be said to be such a thing, since "Muslim" is as diverse an adjective as "Christian" or "human"), 'Holy War, Inc' forces the reader to peer into another reality, so much "through the looking glass," and to reflect on the contrasts there, where one man's "liberation" is another's "invasion," and one's "terrorism" is another's "defense," and one's "insurgency" is another's "holy war." Which is the real, actual reality? Or, are neither of them "real," in the sense of their being colored by the limitations and distortions imposed by subjective perception and personal perspective, instead of reflecting true, objective, unfiltered reality? 'Holy War, Inc' suggests that the answer lay somewhere in between, in that fabled land of "shades of grey" and complicated, inconvenient contrasts. A big study, indeed.
I am grateful to this book's author, subjects, and publisher. I have benefited from your work.
Clearly written by a guy who's been reporting on all parties involved long before 9/11, this book really gives you the big picture on bin Laden, Al Qaeda and the roots of both throughout recent years. You'll get the info surrounding the original WTC bombing, the African Embassy bombings, the Cole bombing, the failed Millenium bombings here and a few other more recent militant Islamist capers.
It definitely spells out why bin Laden reviles the U.S. so much, but does not necessarily answer how he could come to believe the things he does with such murderous verocity--although what could?
If you want a quick primer on Al Qaeda, bin Laden or his even scarier #2, this book is a quick, easy read.
Note: I have "The New Jackals" ordered but have not read it yet; allegedly it's a great read as well.