THE SWORD OF ISLAM: Muslim Extremism from the Arab Conquests to the Attacks on America

This sweep of the history of Islamic extremism suffers from a lack of focus and a failure to confront complex questions. Murphy, a military historian, covers a lot of ground, beginning his story with the birth of the prophet Muhammad in A.D. 571 and ending with the Sept. 11 attacks and the U.S.-led war on terrorism in Afghanistan. But most of the book looks at the 20th century's sporadic outbreaks of anti-West violence. All too often this account feels like a list of atrocities, without interpretation and context. In just a few pages, for example, Murphy jumps from the rise of Nasser in Egypt to the creation of the Turkish state to the rule of the Shah in Iran. He doesn't delve in any depth into the conditions, whether internal or external, that led to today's Islamic militancy. In his epilogue, Murphy further fails to explore the quandary of where the U.S. campaign should go next, yet repeatedly cheers it on—making his book feel like a patriotic high school history textbook. (Mar. 30)