Customer Reviews

The Red Roots of Terrorism

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

If you are stuck in the Red Scare and looking for self-affirming, right wing, anti-semitic entertainment, this is the book for you.

I was required to purchase this for a post-graduate terrorism course and will be demanding an explanation. The book - which never does define 'terrorism' - is mostly useless, ill-cited name calling, complete with grammatical errors. A quick look at the references in the back reveals what sort of drivel this is.

Nearly one third of the references (96 of 310 in a hasty count) are from the Wall Street Journal. Other news sources include the Chicago Tribune, US News & World Report, The New Yorker, and Parade Magazine (!). WSJ is a perfectly good newspaper and these sources are fine for news or for the occasional factual citation (better to cite the source, like AP or Reuters), but to base any book that purports to be remotely academic on news sources like this is weak at best. The reason for this is that these sources are focused on printing daily or weekly news, corroborated or not, and are NOT subject to any sort of expert review like an academic journal is. Not only that, but plenty of the articles are from the Op-Ed page, including LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Some of the articles from scientific sources may be legitimate, and plenty of books are cited (though plenty of text remains wanting for citation). However, there is nothing from ANY terrorism journal (of which there are several well-respected journals in fields of terrorism studies, counterterrorism, and security), post-communist studies journal, or social science journal, conservative or otherwise. There is also probably not much by anyone you have ever heard of, if you happen to study terrorism or communism.

While www.jeffsarchive.com (also cited) is no longer available, the author Ian McKinney (cited) can still be found at www.theunjustmedia.com alongside other winners who promote ideas like "Timothy McVeigh may have unknowningly been an Army/CIA guinea pig involved in a classified telemetric/mind-control project," in compelling articles like "Brain Zapping - Electronic Mind Control - Part One."

Hmm... vaguely reminiscent of a technique I used in Jr. High to gain credibility in research papers: cite a lot of stuff, no matter where it came from. (Citing newspapers was ok back then, but by undergrad I would have gotten blasted if my bibliography looked ANYTHING like this. And I attended a military academy, not exactly a liberal university haven that Hartwright would probably deem full of godless pinko fags).

Additionally, what information is available on the publisher should put the academic value of the book into question. Cui Bono Books, after cursory internet research, appears to be a side project of Pan-Tech International, which publishes reference books on baking technology. Cui Bono only has a handful of tomes: those by Hartwright and those written under a pseudonym (F.X. Foulke-ffeinberg) on biblical topics and the virtual campus (also cited in Red Roots of Terrorism, incidentally). Hartwright's other 2 books are on the JFK assassination (has a nice Amazon review) and on the Vincent Foster death.

All evidence points to this book being academically worthless, and Cui Bono books being a recreational endeavor by Hartwright, who would do us all a service by sticking to baking technology studies.

For some excellent books on actual terrorism, try these:
Root Causes of Terrorism, by Tore Bjorgo (ed)
Inside Terrorism, by Bruce Hoffman
Seeds of Terror, by Maria Ressa (southeast Asia focus)
Al Qaeda, by Jason Burke (Al Qaeda focus)

Having read a dozen books on terrorism, scores of articles from professional journals and think tank studies, "Red Roots of Terrorism" is easily the worst book I have ever read on the topic. The author makes a desperate attempt to attribute hundreds of years of terrorist attacks to socialist tendencies. The end result is a volume that reads more like a third rate conspiracy publication, mixing partial truth with fantasy. Perhaps the most appalling section of the book is the author's recommendations for counterterrorism, which can only be classified as neurotic. For a better read, try Bruce Hoffman's "Inside Terrorism or Marc Sageman's Understanding Terror Networks.

Theories put forth in this book are so far-fetched that it is hard to believe they can be found in print. Conspiracy theory has been taken to its ultimate right wing conclusions, and all those theories linked into one unbelievable piece of propaganda. Of course that makes it entertaining, at times, until you realize that this author is serious about it. There is plenty of logic used here, but you have to accept his evidence at face value to believe. It doesn't work if you have ever read deeply in the subjects he covers. The author is so far removed from society he should be living in a utopian commune, like the Amish, if he really practices what he preaches. But his attempt here to convince the world of his view is fraught with logical inconsistency, incomplete perspectives, and extreme bias.

Mr Hartwright resurrects all the anti-Semitic canards from throughout history. I felt that I was reading the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Adolf Hitler could NOT have written the chapter on Judaism any viler. Fact are facts as to the composition of certain movements and political groups, but to smear an entire religion and group with the oldest and vilest of stereotypes and characterizations is outrageous.

I hope Herr Hartwright enjoys his springtime goosesteps through the park. Perhaps he will have the chance to step on some puppies while he does so.

The way the book is written tends to be irritating because of the prejudicial rhetoric the author uses for communist references. However, I am using the book for a class I am taking and find the details and background that Hartwright includes to be a big help. I would recommend it to people studying terrorism for a look beyond the Muslim Extremist perspective.

Definently written from a conservative perspective, Hartwright focuses on communism, and more specifically the governmental influences within this societal structure that perpetuate terrorism and their attempts in further inoculate the free world's beuracracies (i.e. academia, politics, and the church). Inarguably written from a more conservative perspective, this is one of those books that tries to push the reader into the extreme, in hopes of at least swaying the reader to acknowledge the continued ills of communism that continue to lurk within America.

The other review says: ".......but to smear an entire religion and group with the oldest and vilest of stereotypes and characterizations is outrageous." Quite right, but other than that, there are some very interesting and useful facts in this book.

The remarks taken as bigoted should just be ignored (and simply the best taken from the book), in the spirit that Christians are similarly expected to do regarding the Talmud - in which Jesus is described as illegitimate and Mary (his Mother) as a Prostitute - that can also be described as outrageous (the Encyclopaedia Judaica describes the Talmud as defaming Jesus).