- Paperback: 240 pages
- Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. (5 Mar 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0826424546
- ISBN-13: 978-0826424549
- Product Dimensions: 2.1 x 1.5 x 0.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 934,072 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Review
"Referencing hundreds of independent studies, government reports and media commentary, Furedi contributes an insightful argument for a realistic, level-headed and self-aware approach to the problem of terrorism" --Publishers Weekly
"Invitation to Terror has a relevance to policy makers far outside of the security arena" --Tribune
"This book is fresh, well written, awash with lightly worn learning and so confident in its perspective that the argument... gathers pace with such vigour as each chapter rolls by that the book's end it seems well-nigh irrefutable" --Times Higher Educational Supplement
"Invitation to Terror has a relevance to policy makers far outside of the security arena" --Tribune
"This book is fresh, well written, awash with lightly worn learning and so confident in its perspective that the argument... gathers pace with such vigour as each chapter rolls by that the book's end it seems well-nigh irrefutable" --Times Higher Educational Supplement
Product Description
Frank Furedi's claim that the social attitude of the West inadvertently invites acts of terrorism is an unsettling thought, but one that must be addressed in open discussion. Frank Furedi argues that Western culture appears to feed off a diet of terror and inadvertently offers its enemies an invitation to be terrorised. We have not developed an intellectual framework in which to be able to confront the fear of terrorism. The language we use betrays confusion about the threat we face and therefore undermines our capacity to engage with it. Beginning with the question of 'Why do they hate us?' we find ourselves unsure of who 'they' are.Even more unsettling is the realisation that we are not quite sure of who 'we' are. In this startling and original book Frank Furedi engages with some of the most fundamental questions confronting society today. We are in a global conflict that appears so confusing that we are not even certain what to call it. The failure to conceptualize the issues at stake is demonstrated by the absence of consensus around even what words to describe the meaning of the present conflict and enemy. Suddenly governments stop speaking about the War on Terror and talk about the Long War. The shift in terminology often betrays confusion about the issues at stake. Lack of clarity about what this war is about, who are the protagonists, its scope and duration dominates discussions on this conflict. Meaningless terms often represent an attempt to evade. In this case they express confusion and the inability to make sense of life in the twenty-first century.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In 'Invitation to Terror' Frank Furedi forwards essentially a single thesis: that the War on Terror's politics of fear pushed by governments around the world does not result from a conscious deception in the service of power, state warmongering, and suchlike; but rather from the elite's own loss of self belief and a culture of uncertainty and anxiety. The loss of belief in question is the erosion in the belief in secularism, liberalism, and, more generally, 'Western values'. Thus, despite drawing different conclusions to the 'pro-war left' there is a certain similarity to it's analysis in Furedi's work. The self-hating elite is apparently under the same spell of decrepit belief in Western culture, and if adopting more stridency in standing up for Western values they would not need to peddle the politics of fear.
Whether you agree with his arguments' logic or assumptions, the problem is that the book never really develops it with any specificity. What is the 'political elite', and can all governments around the world be operating in the same fashion? What about non-Western governments who have adopted the same rhetoric? The War on Terror is never put into any form of geopolitical analysis. Furedi's analysis involves poring through official statements and British and American newspaper articles and drawing massively sweeping conclusions from this limited form of discourse analysis. The upshot is that the book is repetitive; when assertion is not substantiated, or at least theoretically deepened, it is simply repeated over and over again for effect.
Whether you agree with his arguments' logic or assumptions, the problem is that the book never really develops it with any specificity. What is the 'political elite', and can all governments around the world be operating in the same fashion? What about non-Western governments who have adopted the same rhetoric? The War on Terror is never put into any form of geopolitical analysis. Furedi's analysis involves poring through official statements and British and American newspaper articles and drawing massively sweeping conclusions from this limited form of discourse analysis. The upshot is that the book is repetitive; when assertion is not substantiated, or at least theoretically deepened, it is simply repeated over and over again for effect.
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