Waves Of Global Terrorism: From 1879 To The Present

449 Pages·2022·2.908 MB·English

by  David C. Rapoport

WAVES OF GLOBAL
TERRORISM

DAVID C. RAPOPORT
WAVES OF GLOBAL
TERRORISM
From 1879 to the Present
Columbia University Press / New York
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup . columbia. e du
Copyright © 2022 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Rapoport, David C., author.
Title: Waves of global terrorism : from 1879 to the present / David C. Rapoport.
Description: New York : Columbia University Press, [2022] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021046718 (print) | LCCN 2021046719 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780231133029 (hardback ; alk. paper) | ISBN 9780231133036 (paperback ;
alk. paper) | ISBN 9780231507844 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Terrorism—H istory.
Classification: LCC HV6431 .R367 2022 (print) | LCC HV6431 (ebook) |
DDC 363.325—d c23
LC record available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2021046718
LC ebook record available at https:// lccn . loc . gov /2 021046719
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent
and durable acid- free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design: Avivah Rapoport
Cover images: Shutterstock and VectorStock
This book is dedicated to my lovely wife, Barbara,
whose intense commitment made it possible.

CONTENTS
Introduction 1
1 Terrorism Before the Global Form: From the First Century
to the Twentieth 13
2 The First Wave: Anarchist, 1879– 1920s 65
3 The Second Wave: Anticolonial, 1919–1 960s 111
4 The Third Wave: New Left, 1960s– 1990s 151
5 The Fourth Wave: Religious, 1979– 2020s? 197
Conclusion: The Fifth Wave? 269
Notes 307
Index 397

INTRODUCTION
Shirked by our historians, the subject has been repressed in the national
consciousness. We have been victims of what members of the National
Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence have called a
“historical amnesia”!. . . For the long span from about 1938 to the
mid- 1960s . . . the internal life of the country was unusually free of violent
episodes. Americans who came of age during and after the 1930s found it
easy to forget how violent a people their forebears had been.
— RICHARD HOFSTADTER, “REFLECTIONS ON VIOLENCE IN THE UNITED STATES”
U
nlike crime, terrorism is not a permanent feature of our societ-
ies. Intermittent political events inspire terrorist activity. Global
terrorism emerged in the 1880s, but terrorism with a more limited
geographic base had been a significant feature of political life long before.
It was largely confined to individual states, and terrorist groups in one
state made no effort to cooperate with terrorist groups in other states. Ear-
lier terrorist groups often survived much longer than their more recent