THE TERRORISM INDUSTRY [Hardcover]

Edward S. Herman (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Herman, a finance professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and O'Sullivan, a Ph.D. candidate there, raise legitimate questions about the accuracy of publicly disseminated information on terrorism; however, their presentation so lacks objectivity as to debilitate their critique. According to them, the "West" (a term frequently used but not clarified) "engages in and supports a primary terrorism under the guise of responding to the violence of others." The public learns of terrorist activity from the government and from "experts" (overwhelmingly right-wing, claim the authors) who "confirm and reinforce state propaganda"; television and newspapers are merely gullible conduits. Considerable effort is expended to show that the acknowledged experts form a closed circle, citing and supporting one another--and the authors' technique here sounds like one that they themselves denounce: "classic right-wing principles of guilt by association." And while they propose that the word "terrorist" is political, they make no attempt to defuse the rhetoric, instead manipulating it to their own ends.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

What is a terrorist act? The authors argue that experts on the subject hold Western views biased in favor of the status quo or government perspectives. The biases, at best, are a product of the "terrorism industry" that has grown up in response to government funding, including the networks of government agencies, think tanks, and private security firms. The mass media also have a big role in promoting terrorist stereotypes, the authors say, often missing a balanced perspective on a "terrorist" act. The authors also discuss the historical use of stereotyping threatening groups (Native Americans, Communists, etc.). A strident yet sophisticated analysis, aimed mostly at specialists in the field.
- William L. Waugh Jr., Georgia State Univ., Atlanta
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon (May 12, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039458080X
• ISBN-13: 978-0394580807
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,809,284 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Edward S. Herman is professor emeritus of finance at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and has written extensively on economics, political economy, and the media. Among his books are Corporate Control, Corporate Power; The Real Terror Network; The Political Economy of Human Rights (with Noam Chomsky); and Manufacturing Consent (with Noam Chomsky). David Peterson is an independent journalist and researcher based in Chicago.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Publisher's Weekly review above is suspiciously biased, April 3, 2004

By 

Earl Hazell (New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Terrorism Industry: The Experts and Institutions That Shape Our View of Terror (Hardcover)

"We have wondered why it was that Dr. Savimbi's UNITA in Angloa and the Contras in Nicaragua were 'freedom fighters, lionized by...Reagan...whereas our liberation movements such as the African National Congress...were invariably castigated as 'terrorist movements'...We had our suspicions that there was a coherent, well-thought-out policy by the West to exercise a selective morality...This book confirms our suspicions...the 'terrorism industry has been very much needed in the West as a cover for its own activities and crimes'..."

Archibishop Desmond Tutu
Praise for THE TERRORISM INDUSTRY

In the wake of the Madrid bombings of 2004, coming exactly three years and six months after the World Trade Center 9/11 incident, all people, particularly Americans, must develop the stomach to look at the root causes of the terrorism that threatens us all: THE TERRORISM WE SUPPORT and INITIATE. Edward Herman and Gary O'Sullivan have written a diagnosis of the ills of the modern world with this book THE TERRORISM INDUSTRY that becomes a moral issue of dangerous proportions for any rational person to ignore. In this, they uncover the very definition of terrorism, and how that definition is used by the government and the media, is part of the reason why it continues to exist.

In THE TERRORISM INDUSTRY, you will discover that that which we call the terrorism that justifies the waging of foreign wars and the shredding of the Bill of Rights makes up little more than ten percent of the actual terrorism that has killed literally millions of (mostly non-White) people around the world. And much of it has been supported by our government, for any number of reasons--making much of the terorism that is inflicted upon ordinary people in the Western world actually blind and frightened acts of revenge, though the American Media will never show it to be such. Building on the analysis of bias and marketable propaganda that is at the core of the Media empires' definition of both news and history in the classic MANUFACTURING CONSENT with Noam Chomsky, Edward Herman develops exactly what his subtitle promises: a complete explication of the experts and institutions that shape our view of terror in the today's world. Long before the avalanche of frightening alternative scholasrhip that is in their bibliography shows you the relationship of Nazism and the Far Right to the politics of definition of what "terrorism" actually is, it will be all but impossible to see the very way in which we are taught to perceive terror as a conintuation of the colonialist/imperialist policies designed to insure Western hegemony in the world, at the expense of the very democracy we (sometimes) defend at home.

Read this at your own risk. But remember, living in the world as we know it in ignorance is a lot riskier.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Deeply disturbing, April 8, 2004

By 

E. Grannis "Lady Liz" (Acapulco, Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: THE TERRORISM INDUSTRY (Hardcover)

This is a disturbing book, designed obviously to remove the rose colored glasses through which we look at Western culture. According to the findings and actual history of Herman and O'Sullivan, Western culture as we know it was not only created by war but is only maintained through constant war--though much of the wars that are waged to keep our consumptive culture alive, as they are waged against innocent people around the world, are not spoken of or reported in the Western media. They are also, obvviously, just considered part of the everyday of life of Europe and the US by our leaders. This book takes Gore Vidal's PERPETUAL WAR FOR PERPETUAL PEACE to another level--one even more disturbing. In so doing it makes the newspapers make a lot more sense, despite the new way in which they will break your heart after reading this incredibly well thought out and scholarly book. What is terrorism? If you think you know, read this book and be changed. It is nor surprise that this book, through many of the secret literary terrorist techniques of the politically influenced publishing industry is no longer in print. The surprise, when reading its contents, is that it was ever allowed to be printed in the first place.

Get a copy of this and read this book while you can; we are not as far away from the land of Farenheit 451 as you may think.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than right wing propoganda, December 28, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The "Terrorism" Industry (Paperback)

The western "corporate" mass media seems to be more concerned about protecting special interests than is disseminating good, unbiased information. This book goes over different conflict areas (South Africa, Middle East, etc) comparing how certain events were reported by the corporate media, and what actually happened. It shows how what we see, read and hear are all highly edited and spun by those that want to obscure the truth. An absolutely fantastic book. I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind having their eyes opened.