A Genealogy of Evil: Anti-Semitism from Nazism to Islamic Jihad
"In A Geneology of Evil, David Patterson examines the texts of key contributors to the twentieth-century Islamist tradition, including Abdul Al'a Maududi, Haj Amin al-Husseini, Hassan al-Banna, and Sayyid Qutb, as well their successors in recent decades, and probes the influence, confluence, and parallels between their views and National Socialism. He offers readers an effective synthesis of the growing historical and social science writing about Islamism while adding a distinctive interpretation rooted in his understanding of theology. His discussions of martyrdom and attitudes toward death provide important conceptual clarification about similarities as well as differences between Nazism and Islamic Jihadism. Much research remains to be done on these issues. Patterson's work should serve as an important source in present and future debates and discussions."  - Jeffrey Herf, University of Maryland, College Park"....Patterson's extensive inquiry into the origins and spread of Islamic jihand ought to be wide read....[He] ought to be congratulated for his thorough research and well-written narrative." --Alexander Zvielli, The Jerusalem Post"The substance ofPatterson's work reifies those who project a similar political agenda, but will be subject to strong criticism from those whose expertise is Nazi-Muslim relations. Nevertheless, this comment aside, there is a rich trove of material for others to mine and insert into the historical record and controversy that has raged on for some decades, but one that certainly is currently in vogue." -Sanford R. Silverburg, Digest of Middles East Studies