I've taught courses on fundamentalism; I've read every article in the Fundamentalism Project concenring Islamism; I've tracked the flowering of books on this topic and have a library full of these volunes. NO book has done as good a job in explaining Islamism as this thin volume, first published in 1990. Its catgories of Revivalism, Reformism, and Radicalism are absolutely perfect; its sober analyses of Qutb and al-Mawdudi are superb. The book expects a great deal of the reader -- knowledge of Islamic thought and modern history. But this is the one book I recommend to students. There is simply nothing better.