Witnesses to Terror Understanding the Meanings and Consequences of Terrorism

by Howie, Luke

• ISBN13: 9780230299757
• ISBN10: 023029975X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-10-02
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Witnesses of terrorism, spread throughout the world, watched the 9/11 terrorist attacks in real-time. Images were instantly beamed to audiences both near and far from where passenger airplanes were hijacked and flown into some of the United States' most recognizable locations. These images were captured, recorded and have been replayed incessantly in the first decade of the twenty-first century. It is a decade that quickly became defined for many as a time of terror. This book argues that to understand the meanings and consequences of terrorism, we must understand terrorism's witnesses. Witnesses are unique, and what they witness is subsequently received and understood in unique, subjective ways. But the question of whose witnessing counts, and which stories are the most legitimate, is of vital importance for understanding the meanings and consequences of contemporary terrorism. Witnesses are never distinct from the things that they witness, and witnessing is never merely watching.

Author Biography

LUKE HOWIE is Lecturer in the School of Political and Social Inquiry at Monash University, Australia. He is also a member of the Global Terrorism Research Centre and the author of Terrorism, the Worker and the City and Terror on the Screen.

Table of Contents

'This impressive book not only engages critically with the specialized literature on terrorism but also introduces a new way of understanding the psychological effects of 9/11. This seminal research examines what it means when terrorists and the mass-media are inextricably intertwined. Howie brilliantly frames terrorism within the sense of uncertainty that it creates. Terrorism's power does not depend on damage or the number of casualties alone – it depends on who is witnesses. Undoubtedly, Witnesses to Terror, is an all-encompassing view of terrorism, which I must confess is one of the best book I have read on the subject.' - Maximiliano E. Korstanje, University of Palermo, Argentina