Blood and Rage: A Cultural History of Terrorism (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Burleigh (Earthly Powers), one of the leading English-language scholars of the role of ideas in the modern world, makes another major contribution in this pull-no-punches cultural study of terrorism as it has been lived and practiced for a century and a half. Burleigh sees modern terrorism's roots in the mid–19th century, with the emergence of the Irish Fenians, the Russian nihilists, the Western anarchists who used fear induced by violence to compensate for their lack of political power. Their tactics were adopted in the mid–20th century by movements seeking decolonization, like the Palestinian Black September, Italy's Red Brigades and Germany's Red Army Faction. By century's end, terrorism further mutated into a tool for marginalized local nations like the Basques. Most recently, terrorism has become identified with what Burleigh calls the world rage of Islamism. Burleigh's case studies demonstrate mercilessly that terrorism is a career, a culture, and a way of life attractive for its own sake as well as its ostensible objectives. The terrorist milieu, the author demonstrates convincingly, is morally squalid, intellectually bankrupt and politically barren. Burleigh considers the lessons history has to teach us, though he eschews policy recommendations. (Mar.)
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Review

'Magisterial...broad in scope, powerful in its argument and brimming with healthy rage. (Burleigh's section on Isamist terrorism) sees him at his polemical best, exposing the multiple hypocrisies - and lazy thinking - of the Islamist terrorist with a sharpened pen...A riveting book.' Evening Standard 'This timely and important books' relevance is embracing. [Burleigh] is a clear--eyed historian!he sets his targets in context!and then pulverises them with an orderly and ceaseless barrage of facts. "Blood & Rage" is in all sorts of ways an outstanding book.' Daily Telegraph 'A magisterial tome, broad in scope, powerful in argument and brimming with healthy rage![a] riveting book.' Spectator 'The clearest, sanest and most knowledgeable voice is increasingly that of the historian Michael Burleigh. No one writes so well or so reliably, and this powerful book will give another boost to his reputation.' Daily Mail 'Written in Burleigh's usual cogent and trenchant style, the book can be highly recommended.' Sunday Telegraph 'Burleigh's evident ability to assimilate and communicate incisively!a highly intelligent and comprehensive survey of recent terrorism.' The Observer 'In this volume, the handiwork of terrorists over the course of a century and a half is described with remorseless, stomach-turning attention to detail!Burleigh's greatest virtue as a chronicler of violence is that he always lets the facts speak for themselves.' Mail on Sunday 'Rich, dense and polemical!a deft and judicious guide. The anger that informs the book is seldom allowed to cloud the author's judgement.' The Spectator 'Caustic and forthright!Burleigh offers a witty, robust and self--confident guide to a subject that regrettably now affects all our lives to some degree.' Daily Express 'Makes rollicking good reading!Burleigh is good at analysing the response to terrorism.' Sunday Times 'His barely suppressed rage, not only at the casual cruelty he describes, but also at the weaselly excuses and justifications of the terrorists' apologists, make his book - though far from a rant - a refreshing douche of cold anger at our weak postmodern moral evasions.' Sunday Times '[a] rich, dense and polemical primer on the modern history of political violence...full of rewarding detail.' Spectator 'Burleight offers a witty, robust and self-confident guide to a subject that regrettably now affects all our lives to some degree.' Daily Express 'In this volume, the handiwork of terrorists over the course of a century and a half is described with remoreseless, stomach-turning detail...Burleigh's greatest virtue as a chronicler of violence is that he always lets the facts speak for themselves.' Mail on Sunday "Blood and Rage' is undoubtedly ambitious...[and] Burleigh's evident ability to assimilate and communicate incisively is perfect.' Observer "Blood and Rage' is in all sorts of ways an outstanding book; it is also fuelled by the manic energy and focus of someone accelerating a truckload of intellectual high-explosives into the gates of a 'stunningly credulous soft-liberal establishment, composed of 'colluding' human rights lawyers and 'celebrity useful idiots" Telegraph 'The conservative historian Michael Burleigh has entered the fray with a more magesterial tome, broad in scope, powerful in argument and brimming with healthy rage' Scotsman 'His writing is direct, tough-minded and surprisingly positive about a subject that otherwise invites depression and pessimism...when victory is finally secured, after much pain for Mankind, future historians will cite books like 'Blood and Rage' as having shown us the way through the carnage.' Waterstone's Books Quarterly '["Earthly Powers"] is no dry academic thesis, but a passionate, highly opinionated!survey of the damage done to European civilisation by various creeds!fascinating, important and thought-provoking.' Sunday Telegraph --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 592 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1 edition (March 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061173851
• ISBN-13: 978-0061173851
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #158,252 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars looking at terrorism's history - and its present, June 24, 2009

By	Les Fearns "casahistoria.net" (UK) - See all my reviews

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.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A terrorist is a criminal with a false cause and a distorted sense of their own worth, October 21, 2009

By	Dr. Nicholas P. G. Davies (Halifax, UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

5 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not His Best, March 28, 2009

By	Athanasius (NYC) - See all my reviews

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.