Showing posts with label terror. Show all posts
Showing posts with label terror. Show all posts

Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies Review

Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies
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Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies ReviewIn this well-researched, beautifully written book, Jeremy Varon explores the whole range of factors that gave rise to revolutionary rhetoric and practice in the 1960s and early 1970s, as well as the moral and existential dilemmas that lurk behind any question of political violence. I'm especially impressed by his multi-faceted approach to the material. To cite just a few examples: With his close reading of images and texts from the underground press, he does the work of a cultural historian; where he draws from pyschological models of trauma to help explain RAF's turn toward violence, his work is squarely within the realm of intellectual history; by unearthing a range of neglected sources and examining these groups "from the bottom up," his work takes on the flavor of a social historian; and I especially enjoyed his rich, narrative descriptions, which make the book such a pleasure to read. Finally, this difficult topic is everywhere explored with a keen moral integrity - and I certainly do not share one reviewer's suggestion that the author reveals any kind of right-wing bias! To the contrary, Varon remarks that this book was inspired by the same passion for justice that animated the new left itself. He seems sympathetic to the aims (if not the tactics) of many Sixties activists, and in his conclusion, he underscores the implications that this study has to to some of the most pressing exigencies of our time - terrorism and globalization. Of course, both Weatherman and the RAF come in for some strong criticisms, but ironically, the most damning testimony frequently comes from their former members. (This is especially true of RAF). All in all, this is a tremendous achievement -- an intelligent, rigorous, and elegantly written book that deserves a wide audience from scholars and activists alike.Bringing the War Home: The Weather Underground, the Red Army Faction, and Revolutionary Violence in the Sixties and Seventies OverviewIn this first comprehensive comparison of left-wing violence in the United States and West Germany, Jeremy Varon focuses on America's Weather Underground and Germany's Red Army Faction to consider how and why young, middle-class radicals in prosperous democratic societies turned to armed struggle in efforts to overthrow their states. Based on a wealth of primary material, ranging from interviews to FBI reports, this book reconstructs the motivation and ideology of violent organizations active during the 1960s and 1970s. Varon conveys the intense passions of the era--the heat of moral purpose, the depth of Utopian longing, the sense of danger and despair, and the exhilaration over temporary triumphs. Varon's compelling interpretation of the logic and limits of dissent in democratic societies provides striking insights into the role of militancy in contemporary protest movements and has wide implications for the United States' current "war on terrorism."Varon explores Weatherman and RAF's strong similarities and the reasons why radicals in different settings developed a shared set of values, languages, and strategies. Addressing the relationship of historical memory to political action, Varon demonstrates how Germany's fascist past influenced the brutal and escalating nature of the West German conflict in the 60s and 70s, as well as the reasons why left-wing violence dropped sharply in the United States during the 1970s. Bringing the War Home is a fascinating account of why violence develops within social movements, how states can respond to radical dissent and forms of terror, how the rational and irrational can combine in political movements, and finally how moral outrage and militancy can play both constructive and destructive roles in efforts at social change.

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