The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s

(Hardback)

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A character-driven and intensely dramatic narrative history of international terrorism's spectacular birth and transformation during the 1970s. When they first captured the world's attention with plane hijackings and hostage-takings, international terrorists were not the conservative, religious zealots of today. These secular revolutionaries included the beautiful young Leila Khaled, with her jewellery made from grenade rings, the hard-drinking philanderer Carlos the Jackal, sporting shades and open-neck shirts, the psychopathic narcissist Abu Nidal and the radical leftists of the Baader-Meinhof Gang. The terrorists of this era smoked and drank whiskey, enjoyed night clubs and meandering conversations about putting the world to rights. But only a decade and a half later, everything had changed. Whereas before their method was maximum publicity with the least cost to human life, by the early 1980s it had become the suicidal, puritanical phenomenon, focussed on maximum violence and harm, that we know today. The Terrorists tells the riveting story of how this happened by bringing to life these extraordinary characters and the world in which they lived- the era of the end of Vietnam and the arrival of the Sex Pistols, of workers' strikes, oil crisis and the sudden boom of the Gulf States. It recreates a time when plane travel was still glamorous and international phone calls were luxuries, when spies met in bars in Beirut or Rome and sources left messages in Hyde Park waste-bins or caches of weapons in Rive Gauche apartments. Drawing on decades of deep research and expertise, declassified archive material and original interviews with witnesses and participants, it offers new insights into the roots and psychology of terrorism, as well as the infamous attacks that resulted from it - from Dawson's Field and the Munich Olympics to the Iranian Embassy Siege in London, the bombings of US and French targets in Beirut in the early 1980s and ending with the first attacks of Al-Qaeda. Gripping, globe-spanning and pulsing with drama, it reframes our understanding of terrorism past and present, showing how today's religious perpetrators are the mutant off-spring of their secular forebears, and providing a fast-paced, immersive history of a critical, iconic era.

Author Bio

Jason Burke is a globally recognised expert on terrorism and radical Islam and has reported for two decades on these and related conflicts from the front-lines of South Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe for the Guardian. He is the best-selling, prize-winning author of four critically acclaimed books, including most recently The New Threat from Islamic Militancy (Bodley Head, 2015; shortlisted for the Orwell Prize; 'A fine overview from one of the shrewdest observers of contemporary Muslim activism which draws together the strands of a highly complex reality to create a picture that is not just convincing but readable' NYRB) and The 9/11 Wars (Allen Lane, 2011; 'the best overview of the 9/11 decade in print' Economist). His first book, Al-Qaeda- The True Story of Radical Islam, is credited with having changed the popular understanding of the nature of modern radical Islam. He has made numerous appearances on television and radio and contributes to periodicals such as Foreign Policy, Prospect and the New Statesman.