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The infernal machine : a history of terrorism, from the assassination of Tsar Alexander II to Al-Qaeda / Matthew Carr.

by Carr, Matthew, 1955-

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New Press, 2007.

Terrorism -- History.

9781595581792 (hc.)

1595581790 (hc.)

410 p. ; 24 cm.

Previously published as: Unknown soldiers: how terrorism transformed the modern world (London : Profile Books, c2006).

Includes bibliographical references (p. [329]-381) and index.

pt. 1. Beginnings. -- The hero takes the stage -- Anarchists and dynamitards -- Terror and resistance -- pt. 2. Freedom fighters. -- Savages -- The romance of the urban guerrilla -- The revolutionary festival -- Patriots -- pt. 3. The terrorist decades. -- The dawn of international terrorism -- The first war on terror -- The armies of God -- Waiting for catastrophe -- A raid on the path: 9/11 and the war on terror -- Epilogue: In a time of terror.

"In 1881, a small group of Russian revolutionaries calling themselves "terrorists" assassinated Tsar Nicholas II in a bombing attack in St. Petersburg. Far from being psychopathic murderers--as they were depicted in the Russian press--these men and women viewed their actions as a just response to tyranny. Today, political violence has become the scourge of our world, and terrorism is routinely described as a uniquely modern evil. Yet however unprecedented in scope the new terrorist organizations might appear, they are offshoots of the same tradition that began in nineteenth-century Europe. This book chronicles the major episodes of terrorist violence that have occurred since then. Matthew Carr demonstrates how terrorist violence, however deplorable, is a tactic used by groups with varied political objectives. The official response to such violence has often been even greater violence: in Ireland, Kenya, Algeria, and Uruguay, no less than today, rulers have consistently seized on terrorist attacks as a pretext for a massive counterassualt, sacrificing civil liberties and curtailing democratic institutions in the name of security and counterterrorism. The author examines our current predicament against a background of striking historical parallels"--Provided by publisher.

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