The Power of Nightmares (2004)

Notes to accompany ‘The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear’ by Adam Curtis

Episode One: ‘Baby It’s Cold Outside’

Sayyid Qutb:

Egyptian theorist whose writings on the political role of Islam significantly shaped Islamist ideology in the twentieth century. A teacher, Sayyid Qutb spent two years in the United States between 1948 and 1950, which led him to critique a materialist society with little apparent role for religious values…