Reign of Terror
How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump
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Narrated by:
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Spencer Ackerman
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By:
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Spencer Ackerman
About this listen
A New York Times Critics’ Top Book of 2021
"An impressive combination of diligence and verve, deploying Ackerman’s deep stores of knowledge as a national security journalist to full effect. The result is a narrative of the last 20 years that is upsetting, discerning and brilliantly argued." (The New York Times)
"One of the most illuminating books to come out of the Trump era." (New York Magazine)
An examination of the profound impact that the War on Terror had in pushing American politics and society in an authoritarian direction
For an entire generation, at home and abroad, the United States has waged an endless conflict known as the War on Terror. In addition to multiple ground wars, the era pioneered drone strikes and industrial-scale digital surveillance, weakened the rule of law through indefinite detentions, sanctioned torture, and manipulated the truth about it all. These conflicts have yielded neither peace nor victory, but they have transformed America. What began as the persecution of Muslims and immigrants has become a normalized feature of American politics and national security, expanding the possibilities for applying similar or worse measures against other targets at home, as the summer of 2020 showed. A politically divided and economically destabilized country turned the War on Terror into a cultural - and then a tribal - struggle. It began on the ideological frontiers of the Republican Party before expanding to conquer the GOP, often with the acquiescence of the Democratic Party. Today’s nativist resurgence walked through a door opened by the 9/11 era. And that door remains open.
Reign of Terror shows how these developments created an opportunity for American authoritarianism and gave rise to Donald Trump. It shows that Barack Obama squandered an opportunity to dismantle the War on Terror after killing Osama bin Laden. By the end of his tenure, the war had metastasized into a bitter, broader cultural struggle in search of a demagogue like Trump to lead it.
Reign of Terror is a pathbreaking and definitive union of journalism and intellectual history with the power to transform how America understands its national security policies and their catastrophic impact on civic life.
©2021 Spencer Ackerman (P)2021 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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"A bracing chronicle of the war on terror and its corrosive effect on American democracy." (Jamelle Bouie, The New York Times)
Named a best nonfiction book of 2021 by The Washington Post and Foreign Policy
"In the genre of books that seek to explain why we are in the mess we are in, Reign of Terror is a formidable entry. To those who want to portray Trump as wholly exceptional, and discontinuous with the recent past, the book is an essential corrective." (The New Republic)
"An impressive combination of diligence and verve, deploying Ackerman’s deep stores of knowledge as a national security journalist to full effect. The result is a narrative of the last 20 years that is upsetting, discerning and brilliantly argued." (The New York Times)
"Reign of Terror is at its strongest when Ackerman recalls some of the outrages-of-the-week of the past 20 years, which may have faded from memory but feel portentous in retrospect.... The book compellingly argues that, the protestations of neoconservative Never Trumpers notwithstanding, Trump’s 'America First' doctrine was not a break from Bush’s 'freedom agenda'; it was its inevitable conclusion." (Slate)
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Misconduct by those in high places is always dangerous to reveal. Whistleblowers thus face conflicting impulses: by challenging and exposing transgressions by the powerful, they perform a vital public service - yet they always suffer for it. This episodic history brings to light how whistleblowing, an important but unrecognized cousin of civil disobedience, has held powerful elites accountable in America.
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Wow!
- By Private on 11-15-20
By: Allison Stanger
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The Plot to Scapegoat Russia
- How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Putin
- By: Dan Kovalik Esq.
- Narrated by: Alex Hyde-White
- Length: 6 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Since 1945, the US has justified numerous wars, interventions, and military build-ups based on the pretext of the Russian Red Menace, even after the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of 1991 and Russia stopped being Red. In fact, the two biggest post-war American conflicts, the Korean and Vietnam wars, were not, as has been frequently claimed, about stopping Soviet aggression or even influence. And now the specter of a Russian Menace has been raised again in the wake of Donald Trump's victory.
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A Great Listen!
- By Mark Andreadis on 12-29-17
By: Dan Kovalik Esq.
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Necessary Illusions
- Thought Control in Democratic Societies
- By: Noam Chomsky
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 18 hrs and 12 mins
- Original Recording
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In his 1988 CBC Massey Lecture, Noam Chomsky inquires into the nature of the media in a political system where the population cannot be disciplined by force and thus must be subjected to more subtle forms of ideological control. Specific cases are illustrated in detail, using the U.S. media primarily but also media in other societies.
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Seminal work ruined by a terrible performance.
- By R. Kuprov on 04-14-17
By: Noam Chomsky
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The Post-American Presidency
- The Obama Administration's War on America
- By: Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer
- Narrated by: Mel Foster
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Widely popular conservative blogger Pamela Geller and New York Times best-selling author Robert Spencer team up for this battle cry about the damage being done by the current administration's policies to the institution of the American presidency.
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The real truth behind the Obama administration
- By Joyce Blue on 04-10-16
By: Pamela Geller, and others
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Nemesis
- The Last Days of the American Republic
- By: Chalmers Johnson
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 11 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Drawing comparisons to empires past, Johnson explores in vivid detail the likely consequences of US dependence on a permanent war economy, and what it will mean when the globe's sole "hyperpower" is no longer capable of paying for the vaulting ambitions of its leaders - and becomes the greatest hyper-debtor of all time. In his stunning conclusion, Johnson suggests that the crisis of a financial breakdown could ultimately prove to be the only path to a renewed nation.
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The Book Bill O'Rielly Doesn't Want You To Read!
- By Joe on 04-04-07
By: Chalmers Johnson
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The Afghanistan Papers
- A Secret History of the War
- By: Craig Whitlock, The Washington Post
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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Unlike the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 had near-unanimous public support. At first, the goals were straightforward and clear: Defeat al-Qaeda and prevent a repeat of 9/11. Yet soon after the United States and its allies removed the Taliban from power, the mission veered off-course and US officials lost sight of their original objectives.
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Eye-Opening Book
- By David J Ray on 09-01-21
By: Craig Whitlock, and others
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The Longest War
- America and Al-Qaeda Since 9/11
- By: Peter L. Bergen
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 16 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Longest War, Peter Bergen offers a comprehensive history of this war and its evolution, from the strategies devised in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to the fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and beyond. Weaving together internal documents from al-Qaeda and the U.S. offices of counterterrorism, first-person interviews with top-level jihadists and senior Washington officials, along with his own experiences on the ground in the Middle East, Bergen balances the accounts of each side.
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More Bush bashing..yes, but still worth reading.
- By Dennis on 01-18-11
By: Peter L. Bergen
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The Plot to Betray America
- How Team Trump Embraced Our Enemies, Compromised Our Security, and How We Can Fix It
- By: Malcolm Nance
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 13 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Plot to Betray America, New York Times best-selling author and renowned intelligence expert Malcolm Nance reveals exactly how President Trump and his inner circle conspired, coordinated, communicated, and eventually strategized to commit the greatest acts of treachery in the history of the United States: Compromising the presidential oath of office in exchange for power and personal enrichment.
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Fantastic Read
- By Customer on 11-14-19
By: Malcolm Nance
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Descent into Chaos
- The United States and the Failure of Nation Building in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia
- By: Ahmed Rashid
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 19 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Rashid examines Central Asia, and the corridors of power in Washington and Europe, to see how the promised nation building in the region has progressed. His conclusions are devastating.
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Useful!
- By John Robert BEHRMAN on 02-24-09
By: Ahmed Rashid
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Hateland
- A Long, Hard Look at America's Extremist Heart
- By: Daryl Johnson
- Narrated by: Derek Botten
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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America is a land in which extremism no longer belongs to the country's shadowy fringes, but comfortably exists in the national mainstream. That is the alarming conclusion by intelligence analyst Daryl Johnson, an expert on domestic extremism with more than 25 years of experience tracking radicalized groups for the US government. In this book, Johnson dissects the rapidly expanding forms of American hatred and radicalization, including white nationalists, antigovernment militias, antifascists (Antifa), militant black nationalists, and extremist Islamic groups.
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Excellent research and information
- By S. Razo on 12-26-23
By: Daryl Johnson
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The War for America's Soul
- Donald Trump, the Left's Assault on America, and How We Take Back Our Country
- By: Sebastian Gorka
- Narrated by: Dennis Prager, Sebastian Gorka
- Length: 6 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Our country is at war with itself. On one side are American patriots, dedicated to freedom under the Constitution; on the other side are leftists campaigning not just to win elections, but to radically transform the nation. In this political war for the soul of our country, America’s patriots need a strategist with a blueprint for victory. Luckily, we have such a man in Dr. Sebastian Gorka - a former strategist for President Trump and now a nationally syndicated radio host and a fearless culture warrior.
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Great Book
- By Margie Books on 12-05-19
By: Sebastian Gorka
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The Road to 9/11
- Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America
- By: Peter Dale Scott
- Narrated by: Raymond Todd
- Length: 11 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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This is an ambitious, meticulous examination of how U.S. foreign policy since the 1960s has led to partial or total cover-ups of past domestic criminal acts, including, perhaps, the catastrophe of 9/11. Peter Dale Scott, whose previous books have investigated CIA involvement in southeast Asia, the drug wars, and the Kennedy assassination, here probes how the policies of presidents since Nixon have augmented the tangled bases for the 2001 terrorist attack.
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Full of Interesting Information, Hard to Follow
- By Blizzard on 09-20-13
By: Peter Dale Scott
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Pakistan on the Brink
- The Future of America, Pakistan, and Afghanistan
- By: Ahmed Rashid
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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What are the possibilities—and hazards—facing America as it withdraws from Afghanistan and reviews its long engagement in Pakistan? Where is the Taliban now in both of these countries? What does the immediate future hold, and what are America’s choices going forward? These are some of the crucial questions that Ahmed Rashid—Pakistan’s preeminent journalist—takes on in this follow-up to his acclaimed Descent into Chaos.
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A Very Long NPR-like Interview and History Lesson
- By Harry Zimmer on 04-23-12
By: Ahmed Rashid
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What listeners say about Reign of Terror
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Texas87
- 09-22-21
Highly recommend
Read this book for a deep dive into the war on terror. I don’t think Ackerman should have narrated his own book, however. The tone was hectoring.
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- Kombiz Lavasany
- 08-20-21
an exceptional history and analysis
Thorough in its history of 9/11 and deep analysis about how it shaped our politics
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anonymous User
- 09-05-21
An eye opener
Spencer Ackerman peels away the multiple layers of the American response to the 9-11 attacks. It reveals the essence of the United States endearment towards American Exceptionalism. This is a story that delves into the issues that boil beneath politics in the United States and the breakdown of our democracy.
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- AJ
- 04-25-23
Stunning retrospective
Reign of Terror’s thesis is evocative and effectively argued as a thorough line connecting the past twenty years of American Politics. It’s a stunning retrospective that underscores the insanity of the era in a way that sounds hyperbolic and dated were it not correct.
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- JMM
- 08-15-21
Terrific.
Just a really well thought out, well argued book that traces a path from 9/11 to the horrors of 2021.
A terrific read.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 09-11-21
A powerful history
As a Muslim American, I keenly understand how 9/11 changed everything for our community. As Ackerman meticulously demonstrates though, 9/11 changed everything about America as well remaking our values, our role in the world, and unleashing the violent carnage that displaces millions to this day.
The book is a helpful primer on the history of how we’ve gone in the wrong direction since 9/11. Ackerman’s critique is multi partisan and blistering. The audio version is read by Ackerman and his narration is excellent.
This book poses the difficult questions that too many Americans have ignored or chosen to look away. If you are unfamiliar with the subject matter, it’s a must read.
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5 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 08-18-21
A Skeleton Key to Modern America
To understand the national psychosis that enveloped America post-9/11, There is no better book.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Kevin
- 08-17-21
Vital analysis for policymakers and the public
Ackerman vividly illustrates the ruinous consequences of post-9/11 policy. Every American should learn about the continuity between the initiation of the global war on terror and present conditions. If we do not internalize the lessons from this book, either Trump himself or someone worse will return and take the domestic security state to its logical conclusion.
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6 people found this helpful
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- John Convery
- 09-01-21
Decent analysis of our current issues
Overall, I would say that Spencer makes excellent points. I largely concur with his assessment. My only criticism is that it's focus on outcomes understates how incomprehensible 9/11 was to Americans and how our response was far more focused on accelerating the process to protect ourselves.
I'm not justifying the stupidity but understanding how we got there is just as important as to the why. Not everything is agenda driven, often the pragmatic solutions, such as drone strikes, are far more preferable to boots on the ground which given our lack of focus on human intelligence would be just as problematic.
I'll concur the outcomes have taken us to a dark place and I'm genuinely concerned about potential civil unrest becoming something far worse.
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- Joab
- 09-21-21
Good history but flawed
Good history but the author lost the thread of the thesis in the final few chapters of the book.
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