Terrorism Before the Letter

Download or read book Terrorism Before the Letter written by Robert Appelbaum and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 283 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is often assumed that terrorism is a modern phenomenon. The word was only invented in the late eighteenth century, but terrorism has a deep past, going back to the Bible and ancient history. In the period between 1559 and 1642, in England, Scotland, and France, it became a subject of intense discussion, as incidents of terrorist violence came to play an increasingly dramatic role in political life. Princes were assassinated. Massacres broke out. In the name of'ancient liberty' and religious purity, early moderns engaged in signal acts of violence which sent messages which were supposed to have the power of changing power. Meanwhile, terrorism appeared onstage, in narrative and lyrical poems, in political treatises, and history books. This study shows how and why that happened, with a view toward the structure of this phenomenon without a name, terrorism before the letter.