Customer Reviews

Blood and Rage: A Cultural History of Terrorism

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Michael Burleigh seems incapable of writing a mediocre book, much less a bad one. With this his examination of modern terrorism since middle XIX century is a wisely mixed exercise of enormous scholarly research and -not always an scholarly feature-deep penetrating intelligence. The reader gets a clear picture of this kind of disease as something coming, at last, from distorted social and cultural conditions in the middle of an atmosphere of suffocating lack of institutional alternatives, so there is no way to give an adequate expression to complains and the paths of sane development for new generations are kept closed. From this insane pot a first intent for violence as an illusory remedy of all that comes, next the fast development of sheer terrorism as almost a way of living with his unpleasant gallery of characters, blood lust, rage and brutality.
A great book.

It is soon clear that there is nothing new in our current preoccupation with bombings, even suicide bombings, and acts of political or religious terror. Burleigh starts with the Irish Fenians of the 19th century (bomb factories, innocent deaths, deaths of bombers, pre-emptive arrests and "hard" questioning by the authorities - it was all there in the past too ) then progresses (regresses?) through Russian bombers, anarchists onto the 20th century terrorist groups: Israeli, Palestinian, Irish, Basque, the European Red Brigades. The final (largest) section encompasses contemporary Islamist terror groups.

Some is done well. Burleigh is best on the more focused sections where he can follow a linear history: Fenians, Basques & Israeli terrorism as well as the final section on contemporary Islamist terror movements. Elsewhere (anarchism especially) exposition is at times over complex and confusing. I felt even a timeline would cope better with the huge amount of chronology and undeveloped personalities and events offered. Perhaps its scope is over ambitious. It may have been better to break it down into a couple of volumes (and so also include the latin American movements of the 1970's: tightly linked in many ways to the Red Brigades/RAF but a curious and large omission, even if admitted to by the author in the introduction).

At its best this a very good survey despite being openly opinionated, (increasingly so as chapters near the present). It could also do without the authors own explicit "solutions" at the end - many of these are certainly valid but are largely implicitly clear to the perceptive reader and do not require reinforcement. Perhaps more for research and dipping into rather than reading from cover to cover, this remains a valid and accessible addition to the topic.

I enjoyed this book. It was all the better for not making theories, or grand strategies, bit for its straightforward description of people and events. It shows that the people involved in terrorism are dangerous, usually on a basis of criminality or inadequacy. Giving a criminal a "noble cause" or a "lifelong fight" gives him or her a plausible (but utterly false) reason for acts that are utterly despicable on the basis that they can do no good, make no relationships, and can only cause harm, destruction and alienation.

Historical or current grudges are a fertile soil for terrorism, but not a justification for it- because the means invalidates any end it might claim to want to achieve. That terrorism can only cause harm is one of the main messages of this book. Terrorists need to personify their enemies as different, undesirable and other from them. The truth is we are all human, and we all bleed like each other. Burleigh's point that all terrorist victims are people merely wanting to go about their daily business and relate well to other people is well made.

The ability of states to contort their best values (freedom of speech, liberty of assembly, tolerance for others of different backgrounds or opinions) to accommodate terrorists is well described. The role of some lawyers in achieving this is well described. Law, and the uses to which it is used, and to which it is not enforced tell us a lot about the values in our societies. In the UK our libel laws, "Londonistan", and our reluctance to deport certain people are our contributions to enabling terrorism.

This book is powerful, and useful reading. We are all potentially terrorist targets, as we are all "decadent" in some way or other. This book should encourage us that terrorism is a problem that is ultimately sortable, and exposes well the emptiness of purported justifications of it.

I can recommend it to others.

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.

I don't know if it's appropriate to use the word "fan" when referring to a historian. But, to heck with it.... I'm a huge fan of Michael Burleigh. I consider him to be among the best of the current crop of historians; indeed, among the best ever. In addition to being phenomenally intelligent and witty, he's an outstanding scholar and writer. He's also a very astute analyst of the underlying causes of Western Civilization's collapse. I'm always enlightened and riveted when reading him, and I was equally so when reading "Blood and Rage". You cannot and will not read a more incisive and comprehensive book on the subject of terrorists. Burleigh brings it home how extraordinarily vile terrorists are; how they at least disrupt and often wreck the lives of the innocent. Strip away all their bombastic claptrap and the reason is always the same -- the most bestial bloodlust. Terrorists are thugs -- no more, no less.

That being said, Burleigh is a bit too comprehensive in this case; there's just too much detail. With all due respect to Burleigh, I'm just not crazy about the everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-[insert topic here].... And-then-some approach.

Still, Burleigh is always worth reading, and that's one rule sans exception.