Customer Reviews

Creating Young Martyrs: Conditions That Make Dying in a Terrorist Attack Seem Like a Good Idea (Contemporary Psychology)

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This book was a great disappointment to me. Its title is both explicit and deceiving: "Creating Young Martyrs." This book attempts to explain how "youth" (young children between the ages of 10-16 or so) "develop" terrorist concepts in assaulting and killing noncombatants. However, the authors quote just a handful of child/youth-development theorists. They spent a staggering 3 weeks in Sri Lanka, from which they apply their experiences observed there in explaining how almost all other terrorist acts occur elsewhere around the world. While "youth" is mentioned in their book's title, their theories center more on how `children' develop assaultive tendencies. The book's cover shows several children wearing Arabic-worded headbands, yet the word `Muslim' does not even appear in the book's index (although I recall seeing the word once or twice). Variations of "Islam/Islamic" appear about eight times. Although the author's only observed country experiencing wartime martyrdom attacks was "Sri Lanka", issues pertaining to "America" appear just as frequently! This book really doesn't investigate the book's subtitle: "Conditions that make dying in a terrorist attack seem like a good idea." It's amazing how putting the word "martyr" in one's book title implies that someone is going to learn the motives behind those who attacked America on 9/11 (it sells books). Sadly, you are not going to find it in this book. You are not going to learn what motivated the suicide bombings occurring in Iraq during 2004-2009, because instea the authors spend their research time in asking children for their views on what can be done to reduce the threat of nuclear warfare.

I know the author and expected to find the book interesting, but I was truly blown away by the way that this book shines many different lights-- from scholarly to intensely personal -- on this terrible tragedy. In a fairly slim volume I learned about the current theories of how children (and others) get trapped into doing terrorist acts or fighting as soldiers, I learned something about what children (including ex-soldiers) think about the world and the U.S., and I learned to see through their eyes how the actions of major Western powers like the United States on the international stage affect their lives. Woven through the book are references not just to scholarly articles but to literature (i.e., fiction) that touches on and illuminates the issues. Some will certainly find the compilation of cutting-edge research, from a variety of psychological perspectives, of high value, but for me the most memorable moments are when the children speak. Even more that the question of how children choose to be martyrs, this book also addresses the question of how children in war-ravaged lands can say, matter-of-factly "There will never be peace during my life."

This is a really interesting book and very up-to-date, having been published in 2008. It's amazing that with all the focus on national security since 9-11, there has been very little written about trying to understand the psyche of the terrorist. Whether you're a hawk or dove, it should make sense to try to understand the psychological, family and society influences that can make young people do things that most Americans can't even begin to understand.

This book does a great job. It explains the research that has been done on the terrorist mentality and ties it together with what we know about child development in general, all in a very engaging way, with anecdotes and examples from the authors' interviews with children and adults who live in a society in which war and terrorism are a way of life. CREATING YOUNG MARTYRS is a very enlightening read for ordinary Americans and should be must-reading for anyone working in the area of national security.