Blood and Rage: A Cultural History of Terrorism

by: Michael Burleigh

Published by: Harper Collins

Reviewed by Paul Markowitz

On September 11, 2001, with the destruction of the Twin Towers, a paradigm shift occurred that would move “terrorism” from an item of peripheral interest to being the central concern of our times. Terrorism is defined as the tactic used by non-governmental entities that create a climate of fear in lieu of legitimate political power.

Michael Burleigh’s Blood and Rage is a cultural history of modern terrorism starting in the mid-nineteenth century with the Irish Fenians and concluding with present-day Islamic terrorism. Although he makes no attempt to catalog all terrorist movements, he does account for many major strains including the Russian nihilists and revolutionaries, European anarchists, Jewish and Arab radicals in pre-Israel Palestine, the Red Brigade, the Baader-Meinhof Gang, the Irish Republican Army, Al Qaeda, and more.

Because it is primarily a cultural history, he focuses on the life histories and actions of the key players rather than the theories behind their actions. In the process we begin to get a better understanding of the personalities and behaviors of some of the critical participants in these movements. Among the individuals that are chronicled are Abu Nidal, Carlos the Jackal, Yasser Arafat, Andreas Baader, Ulrike Meinhof, Moshe Dayan, and Osama bin Laden.

This is a fascinating study of a critically important subject that lends credence to, at least at times, such seemingly incongruous statements as “yesterday’s terrorist is tomorrow’s statesman” and that “terrorists are morally insane without being clinically psychotic.”

Burleigh concludes his study with a thoughtful discussion of practical steps that governments can perform to counter the conditions that allow terrorism to grow and spread. One caution is that the author is a British historian and thus he speaks from a European perspective and many of his suggestions are specific to the United Kingdom.

Since terrorism has become such a central part of our lives, it has become incumbent upon all of us to understand what motivates terrorism as a means to counter its lethal effects. If we really are in a “war on terror,” ultimate success will only come when we truly know our enemy.

Armchair Interviews agrees.