A Genealogy of Evil

David Patterson is Hillel Feinberg Chair in Holocaust Studies at the University of Texas, Dallas. He has also taught at the University of Memphis, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Oregon. He is the author of numerous books, including, most recently, Sounding the Depths of the Soul (2009), Jewish-Christian Dialogue: Drawing Honey from the Rock (with Alan L. Berger, 2008), and Overcoming Alienation: A Kabbalistic Reflection on the Five Levels of the Soul (2008). His writings have also appeared in many journals and anthologies on philosophy, literature, Judaism, the Holocaust and education.

'In A Genealogy 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

• Introduction: the essence of the Jihadist evil; 1. Nazi ideology and Jihadist echoes; 2. Modern Jihadist ideological foundations; 3. The Nazi seed in Islamic soil; 4. The evil spreads: the Muslim Brotherhood; 5. Jihadist brothers: the Sudanese National Islamic Front, Islamic Jihad, and Hamas; 6. 'Religious' offshoots: the Islamic revolution, Hezbollah, and Al-Qaeda; 7. 'Secular' offshoots: the Baath Party and the PLO; 8. Concluding thoughts: humanity's need for Israel.