This special subject class examines the history of modern terrorism and political violence. Each seminar explores the challenges and problems associated with conceptualizing terrorism through focusing on primary sources concerning key moments in the development of political violence in a variety of historical contexts. In Part I of this class we investigate both state and insurrectionary terrorism mainly in the long-nineteenth century, beginning with the French Revolution, then moving to the revolutionary movements of the nineteenth century, colonial violence, white-supremacist terrorism in the United States, to the Suffragettes on the eve of the First World War. The key readings include primary materials such as the Russian terrorist Nechaev’s ‘revolutionary catechism’, anarchists’ court speeches, and Irish nationalists’ private letters about bombing London. Throughout the course, we will discuss different historical and social science approaches to terrorism, its political uses, and reflect on how it has been represented in media. In doing so, we investigate a topic which holds vital significance in today’s society, though historical perspectives are too often absent from contemporary debates.
- Lecturer: Niall Whelehan