Larry Portis

What are the origins and nature of terror and terrorism in the United States and beyond? This book of essays about the history and contemporary reality of terror reveals little-known aspects of a compelling subject. Since the American and French Revolutions, governments and their opponents have used terror and terrorism for different political reasons. We learn how terror and terrorism have marked the evolution of social values and have entered into cultural expression of all types - literature, music, television, cinema - and have influenced the formation of ideologies and political institutions.
The authors of the introduction and eighteen chapters comprising Terror and Its Representations show how a sensitive subject can be treated with conviction while maintaining the critical distance necessary for serious debate.