Historical Dictionary of Terrorism (2009)

Historical Dictionary of Terrorism (2009)

Sean K. Anderson

"The United States Department of Defense defines terrorism as "the calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to inculcate fear; intended to coerce or to intimidate governments or societies in the pursuit of goals that are generally political, religious, or ideological." Although terrorism has been around for centuries, the al Qa'eda attacks of September 11, 2001, emphasized to the world, and most particularly the United States, just how deadly it can be." This third edition of the Historical Dictionary of Terrorism presents the full spectrum of political violence through a chronology, an introductory essay, a bibliography, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries on major terrorist groups and their leaders, significant terrorist events, cyberterrorism, counterterrorism, and social-science concepts regarding the motivations and group dynamics of terrorist groups. Sean K. Anderson and Stephen Sloan move beyond the gut reaction we have to this volatile and divisive topic and instead provide a reliable and objective reference on terrorism.

Separately, the authors have researched and written about terrorism for either the newspapers or for the U.S. government. Though they reach back into antiquity to include such topics as the Zealots and the "assassins," the majority of their work deals with the 20th century and its explosion of terrorist movements. As the authors explain in the introduction, terrorism is primarily a political act-although the culprits can range from government agencies to "terrorists for hire." The articles are informative and fairly extensive, some covering several pages, and the scope covers not only familiar people and topics (Che, the IRA) but also more obscure concepts (guilt transference) and events ("Black June"). The articles can serve as either a complete answer to a reference question or the basis for further research. The work includes an extensive bibliography and a glossary of abbreviations, extremely helpful since many groups are known by their initials alone. Recommended for both public and academic libraries.

Publisher: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. (2009)
ISBN: 0810857642

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