The Rise of Devis: Fear and the Origins of Modern Terrorism by James Crossland
History of modern terrorism.
When I first received this book and glanced over the cover, two questions popped up in my mind: What examples does the author intend to draw? Which snapshot in history is the author’s interpretation of the inception of modern terrorism?
The genesis of modern terrorism can indeed be a matter of debate, determined by the prickly issue of how you define terrorism.
If manslaughter with the aim to intimidate satisfies, then you could find terrorism's inception two thousand years ago in Ancient Judea, where Jewish Sicarii assassins butchered Roman officials with the intent of pressuring the legions out of their homeland. For those who reject the idea that terrorism is only for the disempowered, a flipside interpretation of that era also provides us a viable genesis. Were not the Roman Empire's perpetrations of massacres against conquered foes, as well as the disciplinary practice of decimation on its own troops, forms of what today would be called state-sponsored terrorism? If first usage of the term is important, then the British politician Edmund Burke deriding guillotine-happy French revolutionaries as hellhounds called terrorists that are let loose on the people' in the mid-1790s is also a fine moment to commence the narrative of terrorism.
Why, then, does this book, The Rise of Devils, start in the 1850s?
I kept on reading, and the author’s intent made sense.
The Rise of Devils: Fear and The Origins of Modern Terrorism written by James Crossland is a book that seeks to demystify the evolution of contemporary terrorism characterized by creating violence and intimidation, perpetrated by “non-state” actors with the aim of achieving a political or ideological objectives. Thus, the sanguinary labours of ancient Rome zealots and the brutal imposition of states upon subject peoples, are not within the scope of this book.
Context is everything in history. The book laid out legitimate reasons to justify that mid-nineteenth century is indeed the origin of modern terrorism.
Terrorists live and die by media attention. Devoid of public exposure for their grievances and actions, terrorists are unable to instill the fear necessary to enact political changes and attract fresh adherents to their cause. It's not surprising then, that the rise of mass media throughout Europe and the United States, coupled with the installation of telegraph cables capable of transmitting news worldwide during the 1850s and 1860s, coincided with a trend where violent radicals, upon reading of each other's attacks, found inspiration for emulation. The international communications network, including newspapers and partisan periodicals, not only produced imitative terrorists but also fueled societal anxieties and conspiracy theories about terrorism. The fear of an international revolutionary cabal, coupled with widespread press coverage of attacks, didn't escape the notice of terrorists, who learned to exploit the media to sow panic and fragment societies. As the book illustrates, the arrival of mass media in the mid-nineteenth century played a pivotal role in shaping modern terrorism.
No less than capturing headlines and instilling fear, terrorists are also reliant on powerful weapons to rectify the asymmetry between their offensive capabilities and those of states that possess. If a group of farmers were mad at the government in the 14th century, what could they do? Grab their pitchforks?
Owing to the Industrial Revolution and the wars fought in the Crimea, the United States, and across Europe, the mid-nineteenth century was a crucible for weapons development. Furthermore, the dissemination of information regarding these new weapons occurred on a global scale through the same communication networks that reported terrorist attacks, thus granting the perpetrators the attention they sought. For example, a publication of Scientific American in 1858 divulged the formula for producing fulminated mercury, a substance twenty times more potent than gunpowder as an explosive, to anyone perusing the magazine. Concurrently, in that very year, terrorists utilized a newly developed bomb fueled by fulminated mercury and murdered eight individuals in Paris.
The following decade, the invention of dynamite by the Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel garnered widespread coverage in the press and in technical magazines. This explosive originally designed for mining purposes, gained favor as a weapon among terrorists, who lauded its efficacy as this 'proletariat's artillery. Aside from new explosives, this period marked the age of the first machine guns, forays into chemical warfare and the sketching out by military planners, science fiction writers and even a few terrorists themselves, of the potential for using airships to shower cities with explosives. For the violent and disempowered who dreamed of evening the odds on the battlefield their oppressors had always commanded, the 1850s through to the outbreak of the First World War was an era of unheralded potential.
Example wise, I am glad to see the Rise of the Devil draws from an extensive array of examples, not limiting the terrorism examples to certain geographic regions, ethnicities, or religious affiliations. The history timeline starts from 1848 when revolutions were rampant across Europe and when the Communist Manifesto published. In 1853, Murder and Liberty published in the US. In 1857, India rebelled against British rule, Orsini bomb invented. 1859 Orsini attacked Napoleion III and Irish Republican Brotherhood formed. In 1863, What Is To Be Done? Was published and in Russia, Ishutin starts gathering followers. Polsh insurgents use Orsini bomb during uprising. Same year, in Germany, Stieber ‘foils’ plot to assassinate Bismarck and is rehabilitated. In 1865, John wilkes Booth killed President Abraham Lincoln. In 1867, in Britain/Sweden Alfre Nobel patents dynamite, same year in France Berezowksi fails to kill the tsar. In 1868, in Australia, Henry O’Farrell fails to kill the Prince of Wales. In 1879, Britain, Freiheit established. In Switzerland, Le Revolte established. In Russia, People’s Will established. In 1880, Russia, The Terrorist Struggle published, next year Tsar Alexander II assassinated by People’s Will. In 1881, New York Times calls for a war on terrorism. In 1883, Germany, attempt to blow up the Germania statue on the Niederwald fails. In 1886, France, Paris stock exchange attacked. I894, French, President Sadi Carnot assassinated. Café Terminus bombed.
I did not expect anyone to actually read that block of text filled with blood, riots, bombs, and murder. The idea is that if you skimmed through the events, you’d see that the author did include a tapestry of examples.
In contemporary discourse, the term "terrorists" often evokes varied stereotyped images, potentially portraying a specific group of individuals belonging to a particular race, region, or religious denomination. This narrow association can be perilous. Hence, I decided to only review this book if its examples exhibit a comprehensive breadth and depth, avoiding any tendency towards narrow associations that might unfairly depict certain groups in a negative light. I am glad The Rise of Devils did not disappoint in this aspect.
All in all, the publication of this book is in June and I wholeheartedly recommend anyone who is interested in the history of modern terrorism to pick up this copy.
