Synopsis
Discusses the formation, political agenda, actions, and religious beliefs of various groups that use violent means to achieve their ends.
School Library Journal
Gr 8 Up-Maintaining a balanced approach throughout, these titles provide timely and accurate information. Currie profiles several well-known terrorists and organizations, including Hamas, Shining Path, the Irish Republican Army, Timothy McVeigh, and al-Qaeda. The history of each organization's formation, motives, and tactics are presented in a clearly written style. Taylor starts with the earliest known accounts of terrorism in the first century A.D. and proceeds through history, discussing the various reasons for such actions. Motivations of terrorist groups, ranging from anarchy to separatism to holy war, are discussed with neutrality and balance. The events of September 11th and the beginning of America's war on terrorism are included. In both titles, excellent historical background gives focus to the content and captioned, black-and-white illustrations and photographs enhance it. Since the September 11th tragedy, most every library has, more than likely, needed to reevaluate the part of the collection that deals with this topic. The context of the history of terrorism has definitely changed, and collections should reflect this change. Adding these titles would be an excellent way to provide accurate, updated information on this much-discussed, worldwide problem.-Beth Jones, Shelby County High School, Shelbyville, KY Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.