Columbia University Press Genealogies of Terrorism: Revolution, State Violence, Empire: 66 (New Directions in Critical Theory)

What is terrorism? What ought we to do about it? And why is it wrong? We think we have clear answers to these questions. But acts of violence, like U.S. drone strikes that indiscriminately kill civilians, and mass shootings that become terrorist attacks when suspects are identified as Muslim, suggest that definitions of terrorism are always contested. In Genealogies of Terrorism, Verena Erlenbusch-Anderson rejects attempts to define what terrorism is in favor of a historico-philosophical investigation into the conditions under which uses of this contested term become meaningful. The result is a powerful critique of the power relations that shape how we understand and theorize political violence. Tracing discourses and practices of terrorism from the French Revolution to late imperial Russia, colonized Algeria, and the post-9/11 United States, Erlenbusch-Anderson examines what we do when we name something terrorism. She offers an important corrective to attempts to develop universal definitions that assure semantic consistency and provide normative certainty, showing that terrorism means many different things and serves a wide range of political purposes. In the tradition of Michel Foucault’s genealogies, Erlenbusch-Anderson excavates the history of conceptual and practical uses of terrorism and maps the historically contingent political and material conditions that shape their emergence. She analyzes the power relations that make different modes of understanding terrorism possible and reveals their complicity in justifying the exercise of sovereign power in the name of defending the nation, class, or humanity against the terrorist enemy. Offering an engaged critique of terrorism and the mechanisms of social and political exclusion that it enables, Genealogies of Terrorism is an empirically grounded and philosophically rigorous critical history with important political implications. Review An empirically rich, carefully contextualized and well-documented study of the different forms that terrorism has taken over time.--Political Theory In Genealogies of Terrorism: Revolution, State Violence, Empire, Verena ErlenbuschAnderson takes on the ambitious project of providing a broadly Foucauldian genealogical account of the concept and practice of "terrorism."--Wendy Lynne Lee "ID: International Dialogue " Makes a valuable contribution to an under-developed literature and she offers some tantalizing points of departure for future explorations of an important and timely subject. Genealogies is an eminently worthwhile read.--ID: International Dialogue Erlenbusch-Anderson provides an eloquent account of terrorism as a dispositif and compiles an impressive amount of historical evidence to locate and excavate various uses of the word 'terrorism' throughout its history.--Sarah DiMaggio "Syndicate " This is an urgently needed intervention. The longstanding shared academic/policy-maker endeavor to define terrorism has failed spectacularly, to the point that cliché now best expresses the term's meaning. . . . Genealogies of Terrorism is a refreshing refusal of both philosophical and political orthodoxies that have only obscured clarity on the subject of terrorism, whether they be a dogmatic insistence on the definitional enterprise or the outright refusal of history.--C. Heike Schotten "Perspectives on Politics " One can only be impressed by the depth and scope of Erlenbusch-Anderson's treatment of terrorism. . . . I should think that the impact of her book will reach beyond philosophy and political theory, beyond the academy. It is, to borrow a phrase, must reading for anyone who wants to understand the historical emergence of terrorism and how it continues to shape the contemporary world.--Michael Clifford "Syndicate " Erlenbusch-Anderson's work is a brilliant contribution to Critical Terrorism Studies, not only deconstructing the labelling processes of this violence, but analysing these in relati