Unknown Soldiers
Profile(August 2006)
www.profilebooks.co.uk/
UNKNOWN SOLDIERS - HOW TERRORISM CONQUERED THE MODERN WORLD is a cultural history of terrorism, from the Russian Anarchists to Al Qaeda, examining the phenomenon throughout recent history, and showing how terrorism has influenced and has been portrayed by artists, writers and the media.
In UNKNOWN SOLDIERS Matthew Carr suggests that terrorism is a specifically modern construct, dating back to mid-nineteenth century Russia. The word “terrorism” has gradually lost its original, almost heroic aura, and in the current “War on Terror”, is used to portray a plague that seems to threaten the existence of civilisation itself. Is this current consensus the result of accumulated myth and outright propaganda? By examining articles, fictional portrayals of terrorism in art, plays, films and in the novels of Emile Zola, Joseph Conrad, Ian Fleming and Tom Clancy, Carr unpicks many of the clichés, and challenges the stereotype of terrorism as a uniquely evil phenomenon.
“In his admirable new history of modern terrorism, UNKNOWN SOLDIERS, Matthew Carr points out that if we are not to endure ‘a permanent state of emergency in which frightened and manipulated politicians are herded into anti-terrorist corrals’ we must develop ‘a more mature and honest attitude towards violent conflict’.” -- Simon Jenkins, The Times
"A brave and wise book... important and thought-provoking... Carr's quest is admirable and educational. This is a book for the ages" -- Boston Globe
"This is an excellent, fascinating history that demystifies much of what we think we know about terrorism" -- Frank Furedi
"Profound in its thinking and ramifications" -- Sunday Herald
"The professional 'terrorologists' should tremble at the publication of this brilliant book which so deftly dismantles the bogus pretenses and false analogies with which they sanctify the global war on civil liberties and free speech. The Satanic face of Terror, as Carr demonstrates with vivid historical case-studies, is usually the State looking at itself in a mirror." -- Mike Davis, author of BUDA'S WAGON: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CAR BOMB
"Matthew Carr has written a brilliant book, even a courageous one. THE INFERNAL MACHINE brims with insight. Here finally we are able to see modern terrorism in its proper historical context." -- Andrew J. Bacevich, author of THE NEW AMERICAN MILITARISM: HOW AMERICANS ARE SEDUCED BY WAR
Foreign rights have been sold in France and the USA.
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