Genre: modern history
Secondary genre: war
Format read: audiobook
Content warnings: violence, racism,
Rep: Middle Eastern (various), Muslim
Rating:

Another effort to educate myself on modern history and countries and events we didn’t talk about when I was in school.

Black Flags tracks the start of ISIS, from the 80s/90s up through the 2010s, weaving together a handful of seemingly disparate events into the terror organization we are familiar with today.

I found this book difficult to take notes on, just because so much of the information was new to me. I also think I would have gotten more out of this book if I’d had a physical copy to references. There were a lot of names my brain didn’t want to keep track of, and it would have been helpful to have maps for reference.

For these reasons, it’s also hard for me to write a proper review. But I found it highly educational and a total gut punch to read. I still don’t understand why Christians, Jews, and Muslims can’t just get along and let each other live as they want to live. But it does help me understand some of the background to current events. I wonder if white supremacists know who similar they are to Jihadists, and vice-versa.

If you have the spoons to handle this kind of book, and want to learn more about the world we live in, this is definitely worth a read.