9/11 and the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq

February 1, 2012

Lansford (political science, international development & affairs, Univ. of Southern Mississippi; Judging Bush; Debating the War on Terrorism) analyzes the causes and effects of 9/11, including the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. This is a tall order for one small book. The volume is divided into three main sections, the first and most important consisting of ten essays that include "Overview: The Rise of Osama bin Laden and Global Terrorism," "Operation Iraqi Freedom," and "The Obama Presidency and the War on Terror." The second section provides 31 brief biographies of subjects such as Daniel Pearl, Hillary Clinton, and Jacques Chirac. A collection of 21 primary-source documents closes the resource. Black-and-white maps and a chronology are also included. BOTTOM LINE The volume's strength is its tying together of various events, discussed in essays that are presented in chronological order. There are some typos but nothing that suggests misinformation. In general, this is a fine companion to Spencer C. Tucker's more general Encyclopedia of Middle East Wars (ABC-CLIO, 2010) and James Ciment's World Terrorism (Sharpe, 2011). Appropriate for high school, academic, and public library reference and circulating collections.--Lura Sanborn, St. Paul's School, Hopkinton, NH

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 1, 2012
With their deep roots in the twentieth century, understanding the undeclared wars in Afghanistan and Iraq demands multiple approaches and views. Lansford, a prolific author on terrorism, national security, the Middle East, and diplomatic history, has in effect created six related works within one book. The most prominent consists of 10 expository essays on topics such as Osama bin Laden's rise, the 9/11 attacks, their effects on civil liberties in the U.S., the invasions of the two countries, each country's insurgency, U.S. politics, and the Obama presidency. These fill just over half of the book. A chronology, biographies of 31 key players both political and military, excerpts from primary documents (such as UN documents and presidential speeches), a glossary, and a selective bibliography round out the volume. The chronology opens in 1970 with the start of passenger screening at airports and concludes in May 2011 with the killing of bin Laden. Given the prominence of the chronology in the book's subtitle and that the U.S. fulfilled very public plans to conclude its combat role in mid-December 2011, one wonders why the book wasn't delayed a few months to bring at least the Iraq story to a noteworthy end point. The essays necessarily offer provisional but informative overviews of events whose long-term effects are not yet known. Spencer C. Tucker's The Encyclopedia of Middle East Wars (2010), consisting of four volumes of AZ entries on hundreds of topics, offers both greater depth and breadth on the region and its recent conflicts, and it is supplemented by a hefty volume of primary documents. These two works complement one another in scope and approach and meet current information needs until they are superseded by new works with longer temporal reach.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)