Lyons Regional Library

Stern and Berger are two experts on violent extremism. They explain the evolution and implications of today's most barbaric jihadist army, Islamic State.

Rise of ISIS gives a better understanding of the modern face of terror, and provides an overview of the laws of war and war crimes. These laws differentiate between the guilty and innocent, and explain why the US military and the Israeli Defense Forces are often limited in their defensive measures.

For a generation, Muslim extremists have targeted Americans in an escalation of terror that culminated in the September 11 attacks. Updated with new chapters on Afghanistan and the broader Islamic movement, this book explains the roots, the motives, and the goals of the Islamic resurgence. The author talked to terrorists, militant religious leaders, and fighters from Beirut to Islamabad and Kabul. Their voices of rage reverberate right up to the attacks...

"There is a war being waged on America and the West. The aggressors? Islamic Supremacists. Their method? Duplicating the sinister methodology of psychopaths who routinely charm, seduce, capture, and devour their prey. Every element of the formula by which the psychopath subjugates his victim, the Islamic Supremacist likewise uses to ensnare and subjugate non-Muslims. And in the same way that the victim of the psychopath is complicit in his own destruction,...

"Every Man in This Village Is a Liar" is LA Times reporter Megan K. Stack's riveting account of what she saw in the combat zones of the Middle East, in war-torn Afghanistan and Pakistan, and beyond. She relates her initial wild excitement and her slow disillusionment as the cost of violence outweighs the elusive promise of freedom and democracy.

FRONTLINE investigates the miscalculations and mistakes behind the brutal rise of ISIS. As part of a special FRONTLINE series, correspondent Martin Smith reports from Iraq on how the country began coming undone after the American withdrawal and what it means for the U.S. to be fighting there again.

"Robert Baer was considered perhaps the best on-the-ground field officer in the Middle East." --Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker. "Robert Baer [was] one of the most talented Middle East case officers of the past twenty years." -Reuel Marc Gerecht, The Atlantic Monthly. In See No Evil, one of the CIA's top field officers of the past quarter century recounts his career running agents in the back alleys of the Middle East. In the process, Robert Baer...

"The journalist who broke the "Jihadi John" story draws on her personal experience to bridge the gap between the Muslim world and the West and explain the rise of Islamic radicalism. Souad Mekhennet has lived her entire life between worlds. The daughter of a Turkish mother and a Moroccan father, she was born and educated in Germany and has worked for several American newspapers. Since the 9/11 attacks she has reported stories among the most dangerous...

The Way of the Strangers is an intimate journey into the minds of the Islamic State's true believers. From the streets of Cairo to the mosques of London, Wood interviews supporters, recruiters, and sympathizers of the group. We meet an Egyptian tailor who once made bespoke suits for Paul Newman and now wants to live, finally, under Shariah; a Japanese convert who believes that the eradication of borders--one of the Islamic State's proudest achievements--is...