‘The Terror Years’ Traces The Rise Of Al-Qaida And ISIS

Author Lawrence Wright was a conscientious objector during the Vietnam War, which meant he was required to do two years of what was called “alternative service.” He ended up in Egypt, teaching at the American University in Cairo. And it was there that the man from Texas started his obsession with the Middle East.

Since then, Wright has written a lot about the region and about terrorism as a staff writer for The New Yorker. Now, he has compiled his many New Yorker essays into a new book called The Terror Years: From al-Qaeda to the Islamic State.

But his interest in terrorism stretches back to well before his New Yorker job … back to a screenwriting gig in the 1990s. He tells NPR’s Kelly McEvers that the 1998 film The Siege asked “what would happen if terrorism came here? As it already had in, say, London and Paris, you know, how would we react if it happened in New York?”