HUMANITY UNDER SIEGE:
Terrorism in Our Time

TERRORISM: AN OVERVIEW

Caleb Carr
The Lessons of Terror: A History of Warfare Against Civilians--Why It Has Failed & Why It Will Fail Again. Random, 2002.
Military historian and best-selling author Carr offers a provocative assessment of terrorism as an ultimately self-defeating practice that throughout history has never led to any long-lasting success, as well as the and reforms that must be taken if the continuing threat of terrorist behavior is to be met effectively and eradicated.

Cindy Combs
Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century. PH, 2000.
Gearing her book for young adult readers, Combs explains what terrorism is, who carries it out, how terrorist acts are committed and what countries do to combat it.

Isaac Cronin (ed.)
Confronting Fear: A History of Terrorism. Thunder's Mouth, 2002.
Another of the plethora of books about terrorism to be published in the months following 9/11, this is a collection of writings about terrorists as diverse as Robespierre, Lawrence of Arabia, Carlos the Jackal, Theodore Kaczynski, and Osama bin Laden..

Paul Elliott
Warrior Cults: A History of Magical, Mystical and Murderous Organizations. Blandford, 1995.
Terrorism is by no means a "new" concept. Elliot starts from the days of the Greeks and Romans and moves forward in history to cover such groups as the Knights Templar, the Thugs of India, and the Ninja clans.

Nadine Gurr & Benjamin Cole
The New Face of Terrorism: Threats from Weapons of Mass Destruction. St. Martin's, 2000.
Examines the new style of terrorism by small groups, cults, and loners with an ax to grind.

Dilip Hiro
Holy Wars: The Rise of Islamic Fundamentalism. Routledge, 1989.
An account of the socio-cultural values of Islamic fundamentalism and its political consequences. Traces the history of this small portion of Muslims as far back as the death of the prophet Muhammad.

John Pynchon Holms, with Tom Burke
Terrorism. rev. ed. Kensington, 2001.
A guide to world terrorism, the countries that support it, and the weapons they employ.

Neil J. Kressel
Mass Hate: The Global Rise of Genocide and Terror. Plenum, 1996.
Why and how global slaughter, genocide, and terrorism erupted in the 20th Century.

Harvey Kushner
Terrorism in America: A Structured Approach to Understanding the Terrorist Threat. Chas. C. Thomas, 1998.
An introduction to the basics of terrorism and what we can do to combat it.

Walter Laqueur
The New Terrorism: Fanaticism and the Arms of Mass Destruction. Oxford University Press, 1999.
Recounts the history of worldwide terrorism and examines developments that will impact the future of terrorism. Discusses sociology of terrorists, the rising groups of political and religious fanatics, the relative ease with which they can attain weapons of destruction and their impact on international politics.

No End to War: Terrorism in the Twenty-First Century. Continuum, 2002.
This book by terrorism expert Laquer, written in the aftermath of 9/11, is a further exploration of the roots of modern terrorism and how the motivations underlying such violence have changed. Laquer covers a wide variety of topics, such as why the Muslim world is the most potent breeding ground of this new terrorism, why the U.S. was unprepared for 9/11, and what the likelihood is that terrorists (don't call them "militants" or "extremists") will obtain and employ weapons of mass destruction.

Milton Meltzer
The Day the Sky Fell: A History of Terrorism. RH, 2002.
A history of international terrorism for the Young Adult reader, from terrorist states to terrorist revolutions, from the IRA to the Ku Klux Klan. Originally published in 1985 under the title, The Terrorists, Meltzer updates his work to include information on the September 11th attacks.

Brigitte L. Nacos
Terrorism & the Media. Columbia University Press, 1994.
Provides a detailed and comprehensive examination of the relationship between terrorism, the media, public opinion, and government.

Jay Robert Nash
Terrorism in the 20th Century: A Narrative Encyclopedia from the Anarchists, Through the Weathermen, to the Unibomber. M. Evans, 1998.
A narrative encyclopedia of politically motivated mayhem and murder in modern times. Begins with the assassination of President McKinley in 1901 and continues through a century of kidnappings, hijackings, bombings and lynchings.

Dennis Piszkiewicz
Terrorism's War with America: A History. Praeger, 2003.
Takes a look at modern terrorism from its beginnings in 1958 with the Cuban hijacking of an American airliner.

Jessica Stern
The Ultimate Terrorists. Harvard Univ., 1999.
How the threat of nuclear holocaust has been replaced by state-sponsored terrorism.

TERRORISM: MOTIVATIONS

David J. Brown and Robert Merrill (editors)
Violent Persuasions: The Politics and Imagery of Terrorism. Bay Press, 1993.
Examines the definition and purpose of terrorism through collected essays, discussions and images.

Mark Huband
Warriors of the Prophet: The Struggle for Islam. Westview, 1998.
Seeks to explain the history, politics, and culture of radical Islam.

Anne Marie Oliver & Paul F. Steinberg
The Road to Martyrs' Square: A Journey into the World of the Suicide Bomber. OUP, 2005.
A chilling look into the death-seeking ideology of Hamas from the up-close and personal perspectives of a pair of scholars who spent six years living in Gaza.

Christoph Reuter
My Life is a Weapon: A Modern History of Suicide Bombing. Princeton, 2004.
Journalist Reuter argues that far from being either crazed fanatics or brainwashed fools, many of these modern-day martyrs are well-educated young adults who willingly turn themselves into human bombs to exact revenge on a more powerful, oppressive enemy and are motivated more by the expectation of being remembered as heroic figures rather than by religion-infused visions of a glorious afterlife.

Jessica Stern
Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill. Ecco, 2003.
For this book, Stern Stern interviewed extremist members of three religions around the world--Muslim jihadists, militant Palestinians, zealous Israelis, radical Christian in the U.S. who embrace violent theologies and commit atrocities in the name of their respective Gods and concludes that they have more in common than one might think.

Amir Taheri
Holy Terror: Inside the World of Islamic Terrorism. Adler & Adler, 1987.
Discussion of motivational factors behind Islamic fundamentalists, where they are coming from and what they plan to accomplish.

TERRORISM and FOREIGN POLICY

Jed Babbin
Inside the Asylum: Why the UN and Old Europe are Worse then You Think. Regnery, 2004.
Details how a corrupt United Nations actively pursues anti-American policies in order to appease America's enemies. Babbin, a deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of President George H. W. Bush and a contributing editor of The American Spectator, insists that it is high time that the changes in "Old" Europe are recognized and redesigned so that America's alliances line up with our national interests.

John K. Cooley
Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America, and International Terrorism. Pluto, 1999.
How the one-time alliance between the U.S. and Islamic extremists went horribly wrong.

Noam Chomsky
The Culture of Terrorism. South End, 1988.
Did we ask for it? In this pre-9/11 diatribe, Chomsky contends that American foreign policy is both hypocritical and malicious, and that American citizens pay the price.

Richard Labeviere
Dollars for Terror: The United States and Islam. Algora, 1999.
A dissection of the financial ties of Islamic terrorist networks including Osama bin Laden. Charges the United States as partially responsible to their uprising due to its support of Saudi Arabia, and bin Laden has acquired most of his money from Saudi Arabia.

Raymond Tanter
Rogue Regimes: Terrorism and Proliferation. St. Martin's, 1998.
An overview of U.S. foreign policy towards the Middle East and its results.

FIGHTING TERRORISM

Daniel Benjamin & Steven Simon
The Next Attack: The Failure of the War Terror and a Strategy for Getting it Right. Times, 2005.
If you're looking for a book aimed at reassuring its readers that we are making progress in the war on terror, this isn't it. The authors argue that America is not only losing the war on terror, its actions are a creating a widening base of support for its enemies in the global Muslim community, a community it simply does not understand. Benjamin and Simon (The Age of Sacred Terror, 2002) express no doubt that another terrorist attack on the U.S. is inevitable and their assessment of how the Bush administration has handled the war is scathing.

Douglas Farah
Blood from Stones: The Secret Financial Network of Terror. Broadway, 2004.
In a journey that took him across four continents, Washington Post reporter Douglas Farah ventured into the dangerous world of terrorist financing—from African diamond smuggling operations; money merchants in places such as Saudi Arabia and Dubai; and even so-called charities that siphon off money to pay for such essentials as false identification cards and safe passage for operatives. Only when these vital networks are severed will a blow be delivered where it hurts terrorists the most.

Michael Ignatieff
The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terrorism. Princeton, 2004.
After tracing the modern history of terrorism and counter-terrorism--from the nihilists of Tsarist Russia to the IRA and the menace of Al Qaeda, with its suicidal agents bent on mass destruction, Ignatieff argues that while we must not shrink from the use of violence against violence, its use must be measured and subject to legislative oversight and judicial scrutiny, not merely a knee-jerk program of torture and revenge.

Samuel M. Katz
Jihad in Brooklyn: The NYPD Raid that Stopped America's First Suicide Bombers. NAL, 2005.
How an early morning raid in 1997 averted a proposed massive subway bombing.

Timothy Naftali
Blind Spot: The Secret History of American Counterterrorism. Basic, 2005.
Based on newly researched documents, recently uncovered archival information, and interviews, Naftali relates the story of America's decades-long attempt to fight terrorism and how on September 11, 2001, a long history of mistakes, missed opportunities and the discounting the threat of to Americans in America culminated with tragic results.

Benjamin Netanyahu
Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat Domestic and International Terrorists. FSG, 1995.
As both a soldier in an elite Israeli army anti-terror unit and as Prime Minister of Israel, Netanyahu has an expansive background on combating terrorism on a variety of battlefields--military, diplomatic and political. In this concise volume, he shares his valuable insights.

Billy Waugh, with Tim Keown
Hunting the Jackal: A SPecial Forces and CIA Ground Soldier's 55-Year Career Hunting America's Enemies. Morrow, 2004.
An insider's view of combating the enemies of democracy, including the infamous terrorist known as Carlos, and the still elusive Osama bin Laden.

Quick Takes...

NORTHERN IRELAND

Tim Pat Coogan
The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal, 1966-1996, and the Search for Peace. R. Rinehart, 1996.

Martin Dillon
God and the Gun: The Church and Irish Terrorism. Routledge, 1998.

Tony Geraghty
The Irish War: The Hidden Conflict Between the IRA and British Intelligence. Johns Hopkins, 2000, 1998.

David McKittrick, et al.
Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children Who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles. Mainstream, 1999.

Jonathan Stevenson
We Wrecked the Place: Contemplating an End to the Northern Ireland Troubles. Free Press, 1996.

THE MIDDLE EAST

Dan Cohn-Serbok & Dawoud El-Alami
The Palestine-Israeli Conflict: A Beginner's Guide. OneWorld, 2001.

Jane Corbin
Al Qaeda: In Search of the Terror Network that Threatens the World. Thunder's Mouth, 2002.

Rohan Gunaratna
Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror. Berkley, 2003.

Dore Gold
Hatred's Kingdom: How Saudi Arabia Supports the New Global Terrorism. Regnery, 2003.

Ellen Francis Harris
Guarding the Secrets: Palestinian Terrorism and a Father's Murder of His Too-American Daughter. Scribner, 1995.

Samuel M. Katz
The Hunt for the Engineer: How Israeli Agents Tracked the Hamas Master Bomber. Fromm, 1999.

David Kimche
The Last Option: After Nasser, Arafat, & Saddam Hussein--The Quest for Peace in the Middle East. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1991.

Neil C. Livingstone & David Halvey
Inside the PLO: Covert Units, Secret Funds, and the War Against Israel and the United States. Morrow, 1990.

George Packer
The Assassins' Gate: America in Iraq. FSG, 2005.

Joan Peters
From Time Immemorial: The Origins of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine. H&R, 1984.

Barry M. Rubin
Revolution Until Victory?: The Politics and History of the PLO. Harvard Univ., 1994.

Edward W. Said
Peace and Its Discontents: Essays on Palestine in the Middle East Peace Process. Vintage, 1995.

LOCKERBIE (Pan Am Flight 103)

John Ashton & Ian Ferguson
Cover-up of Convenience: The Hidden Scandal of Lockerbie. Mainstream, 2001.

Matthew Cox
Their Darkest Day: The Tragedy of Pan Am 103 and It's Legacy of Hope. Grove Wiedenfeld, 1992.