''Voices of Terror: Manifestos, Writings and Manuals of Al Qaeda, Hamas, and Other Terrorists from Around the World and Throughout the Ages'' is a book edited by scholar and historian

Walter Laqueur Walter Ze'ev Laqueur (26 May 1921 – 30 September 2018) was a German-born American historian, journalist, political commentator, and Holocaust survivor. He was an influential scholar on the subjects of terrorism and political violence. Biograph ...

. The book is a comprehensive anthology of 82 primary source documents related to

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

. Each document is presented with a brief introduction and short explanatory text.

The book is a comprehensive anthology of 82 primary source documents examining the morality, psychology, and ethics of ideological violence. Each document is presented with a brief introduction and short explanatory text. This book is designed as a reference for the more serious students of history and the use of terror. The book is divided into three sections. The book documents the emotions, principles, and rhetoric used by those who espouse violence whether for

tyranny A tyrant (), in the modern English language, English usage of the word, is an autocracy, absolute ruler who is unrestrained by law, or one who has usurper, usurped a legitimate ruler's sovereignty. Often portrayed as cruel, tyrants may defen ...

revolution In political science, a revolution (, 'a turn around') is a rapid, fundamental transformation of a society's class, state, ethnic or religious structures. According to sociologist Jack Goldstone, all revolutions contain "a common set of elements ...

guerrilla warfare Guerrilla warfare is a form of unconventional warfare in which small groups of irregular military, such as rebels, partisans, paramilitary personnel or armed civilians, which may include recruited children, use ambushes, sabotage, terrori ...

, and

. Primary source documents are presented from figures such as

Clausewitz Carl Philipp Gottlieb von Clausewitz ( , ; born Carl Philipp Gottlieb Clauswitz; 1 July 1780 – 16 November 1831) was a Prussian general and military theorist who stressed the "moral" (in modern terms meaning psychological) and political aspe ...

Lenin Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov ( 187021 January 1924), better known as Vladimir Lenin, was a Russian revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the first head of government of Soviet Russia from 1917 until Death and state funeral of ...

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

Emma Goldman Emma Goldman (June 27, 1869 – May 14, 1940) was a Russian-born Anarchism, anarchist revolutionary, political activist, and writer. She played a pivotal role in the development of anarchist political philosophy in North America and Europ ...

Mao Zedong Mao Zedong pronounced ; traditionally Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Mao Tse-tung. (26December 18939September 1976) was a Chinese politician, revolutionary, and political theorist who founded the People's Republic of China (PRC) in ...

Che Guevara Ernesto "Che" Guevara (14th May 1928 – 9 October 1967) was an Argentines, Argentine Communist revolution, Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and Military theory, military theorist. A majo ...

, and

Menachem Begin Menachem Begin ( ''Menaḥem Begin'', ; (Polish documents, 1931–1937); ; 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician, founder of both Herut and Likud and the prime minister of Israel. Before the creation of the state of Isra ...

, as well as English Puritan

Edward Sexby Colonel Edward Sexby (or Saxby; 1616 – 13 January 1658) was an English Puritans, Puritan soldier and Levellers, Leveller in the army of Oliver Cromwell. Later he turned against Cromwell and plotted his assassination, which Sexby considered ty ...

and Greek satirist

Lucian of Samosata Lucian of Samosata (Λουκιανὸς ὁ Σαμοσατεύς, 125 – after 180) was a Hellenized Syria (region), Syrian satire, satirist, rhetorician and pamphleteer who is best known for his characteristic tongue-in-cheek style, with whi ...

. The final section of the book includes 26 documents of contemporary

Islamic terrorist Islamic terrorism (also known as Islamist terrorism, radical Islamic terrorism, or jihadist terrorism) refers to terrorist acts carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists. Since at least the 1990s, Islami ...

leaders and groups such as

Osama bin Laden Osama bin Laden (10 March 19572 May 2011) was a militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda. Ideologically a pan-Islamist, Bin Laden participated in the Afghan ''mujahideen'' against the Soviet Union, and support ...

al-Qaeda , image = Flag of Jihad.svg , caption = Jihadist flag, Flag used by various al-Qaeda factions , founder = Osama bin Laden{{Assassinated, Killing of Osama bin Laden , leaders = {{Plainlist, * Osama bin Lad ...

and

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

Publication history

It was edited by

a scholar of geopolitics and history. Its first edition was 520 pages long, published in paperback form in 2004 in New York City by Reed Press. It was also published by

Sourcebooks A sourcebook is a collection of texts on a particular subject intended for use as an introduction to the subject. The selected texts are typically edited, laid out, and typeset in a uniform format before binding, and the result is often a hardcov ...

in a 400 page edition. The first two sections are largely made up of content from two of his earlier anthologies, but the third has 150 pages of new material in addition to notes. Much of the content in the book first appeared in English here.

Reception

J. Peter Pham for ''

The National Interest ''The National Interest'' (''TNI'') is an American bimonthly international relations magazine edited by American journalist Jacob Heilbrunn and published by the Center for the National Interest, a public policy think tank based in Washington, ...

'' called its scope "immense", while Mark H. Beaudry for the journal ''

Security Management Security management is the identification of an organization's assets i.e. including people, buildings, machines, systems and information assets, followed by the development, documentation, and implementation of policies and procedures for pr ...

'' called it "brilliantly presented and meticulously documented" and "probably the single best volume on terrorist writings". A reviewer for the journal ''

Parameters A parameter (), generally, is any characteristic that can help in defining or classifying a particular system (meaning an event, project, object, situation, etc.). That is, a parameter is an element of a system that is useful, or critical, when ...

'' called it comprehensive. Jeremy Moses for the ''

Australian Journal of Political Science The ''Australian Journal of Political Science'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal that covers a wide range of fields political studies and international relations, including Australian politics, comparative politics, policy studies, p ...

'' was critical, and criticized it for not giving a proper definition of terrorism, remarking that "one might think that a 520-page collection of writings on the subject would have to start with some kind of definition".

References

{{reflist 2004 non-fiction books American non-fiction books Books about Islamism Books about terrorism English-language non-fiction books

Contents

Publication history

Reception

References