America 250 · 2001–2020
What to read and watch about9/11 & War on Terror
To understand 9/11 & War on Terror, start with Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (Steve Coll, 2004) — the book. 7 further picks — histories, biographies, novels, screen and audio — follow below.
The two decades the country spent fighting wars it can't quite explain.
From the morning of September 11 through the withdrawal from Afghanistan — Tora Bora, Iraq, Abu Ghraib, the surge, drone strikes, the killing of bin Laden, the long withdrawal. Two decades whose history is still being written.
Presidents who served
Histories
Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001
Steve Coll · 2004
Pulitzer winner. How we got here — Afghanistan from the Soviet invasion to the morning before the towers fell.
The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11
Lawrence Wright · 2006
Pulitzer winner. The pre-history of al-Qaeda and the intelligence failures that missed the September attacks.
Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House
Peter Baker · 2013
The best book on what actually happened inside the West Wing — the war's decisions, by the Times reporter.
Lives
The Bridge: The Life and Rise of Barack Obama
David Remnick · 2010
Remnick on Obama's pre-presidency — the rise that the era's first half made possible.
Fiction
The Reluctant Fundamentalist
Mohsin Hamid · 2007
Hamid's monologue — a Pakistani man in Lahore tells an American stranger what 9/11 did to him in New York.
Falling Man
Don DeLillo · 2007
DeLillo on 9/11 — a survivor walks home covered in ash. The era's definitive American novel.
On screen
Zero Dark Thirty
Kathryn Bigelow · 2012
Bigelow on the decade-long hunt for bin Laden. The torture scenes were the controversy; the procedural was the achievement.
Generation Kill
David Simon · 2008
HBO seven-part miniseries from the Wire team — the 2003 invasion of Iraq through one Marine recon platoon.
Common questions
What is the best book to start with for the 9/11 & War on Terror era?
Ghost Wars by Steve Coll and The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright are essential starting points. These works provide the foundational history of the CIA, the rise of Al-Qaeda, and the geopolitical context leading up to the September 11 attacks that defined the beginning of this two-decade period.
How long did the 9/11 & War on Terror era last?
The 9/11 & War on Terror era spanned from 2001 to 2020. This period covers two decades of conflict, beginning with the September 11 attacks and concluding with the withdrawal from Afghanistan, a time marked by four different U.S. presidents overseeing various military engagements and strategic operations.
What film effectively depicts the 9/11 & War on Terror era?
Zero Dark Thirty, released in 2012, serves as a primary screen treatment for the 9/11 & War on Terror era. It dramatizes the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden, capturing the intensity of intelligence operations and military efforts that characterized the long conflict following the September 11 attacks.
Why does the 9/11 & War on Terror era matter?
This era matters because it represents two decades the country spent fighting wars that remain difficult to explain. From Tora Bora and Iraq to the surge and drone strikes, these twenty years shaped modern history through complex events that are still being analyzed and written about today.
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