Cultural history of terrorism and security since 1789
(Bachelor / Master level)The SAXO Institute, University of Copenhagen Fall 2010/11
Lecturer: Lektor Mats Fridlund
Address: Room 4.1.49, Centre for Advanced Security Theory (CAST), Dept of Political Science, Østre Farimagsgade 5A, University of Copenhagen;
Tel.: (+45) 3532 3717, E-mail: [email protected]
Schedule
Tuesdays 12-14, 15-17. In addition to normal lectures a full-day workshop will be arranged as well as two excursions to museums and phyiscal environments in Copenhagen
Content:
The history of political terror goes back to ancient times, but the breakthrough of modern terrorism comes with the French Revolution’s Reign of Terror. Since then the use of state and substate terrorism has been connected to the security of states and individuals and used by democratic and authoritarian regimes alike. The course will provide a global exploration of the various forms of terrorisms from the 19th century onwards albeit with a focus on the post-1870 period and on the Western world.
The majority of the course is devoted to the historical development of modern substate terrorism and - with some thematic and methodological breaks - will follow the
periodization made up of the so called four waves of modern terrorism. This begins with the first “anarchist” wave in the 19th century which is followed in the 20th century by waves of anti-colonial and new left terrorism and reaching into the 21st century with the fourth wave of religious terrorism. The coverage of terrorism’s use by states will primarily focus on the emergence, development and use during the 20th century of new man-made threats - such as aerial bombings, poison gas, and nuclear weapons - against the security of states and urban communities and civilians.
Methodologically the course will study the emergence and impact of terrorism using theoretical perspectives and concepts developed within various strands of cultural history such as history of mentalité, new cultural history, transnational history, history of emotions and new material culture studies. Core methodological aims are to provide an overview both of how terrorism as culture and terrorism in culture, i.e. that terrorism and security can be analyzed and studied as cultural forms with their own specific and locally varying
practices, identities, social organizations, ideals, mentalities and materialities, as well as the role and place of terrorism and security in culture in the form of the impact and influence on the historical emergence and evolution of various cultural expressions such as literature, art, film, music, technology and media. The course will discuss a number of empirical examples using different forms of written sources, as well as more non-traditional source material such as movies, art works, radio programs, objects and physical
Course objectives:
By the end of the course the student is expected to be able to:
* have gained sufficient knowledge and understanding of the history of terrorism and security to be able to in a confident manner and with some authority describe and discuss the main elements, developments and trends within its historical emergence and
development;
* contextualize and critically reflect upon terrorism and security as cultural phenomena by discussing its interconnections to social, technological, political, intellectual and cultural change;
* explain, understand and reflect upon the meaning of such historical concepts and
perspectives as terrorism, state terror, fear, revolutions, political violence, security, cultural history, transnational history, entangled history, mentalité, materiality, social and technical determinism;
* use and to discuss the value and limitations of various non-traditional source materials for providing evidence of historical and cultural phenomena and processes;
* clearly communicate orally and in writing the key themes of the course.
Literature
* James Lutz & Brenda J. Lutz: Terrorism: Origin and Evolution, Palgrave Macmillan 2005, 224 pp.
* Richard Pipes, The Degaev Affair: Terror and Treason in Tsarist Russia, Yale University Press, 2003, 153 pp.
* Eamon Collins with Mick McGovern, Killing Rage, Granta Books, 1997, 312 pp.
* Walter Laqueur (ed.): Voices of Terror: Manifestos, Writings and Manuals of Al Qaeda, Hamas, and other Terrorists from around the World and Throughout the Ages, Reed Press 2004, 520 pp.
CLASS SCHEDULE WITH READINGS (5 GROUPS WITH 5-6 PERS. EACH)
Readings can be downloaded at: https://public.me.com/matsfridlund folder Saxo-CHOTS ---
Week 1: 7/9 Introduction: Definitions and periodization of terror Class readings:
Peter Burke, ”Introduction” & ”Problems of Cultural History”, idem, What is Cultural
History?, 2nd ed. (Polity Press, 2008), 1-5, 20-30; Anna Green, ”Introduction” & ”Jacob Burckhardt”, idem, Cultural History (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 1-13.
Leonard Weinberg, Ami Pedahzur, & Sivan Hirsch-Hoefler, “The Challenges of
Conceptualizing Terrorism”, Terrorism and Political Violence,16:4, (2004):777-794. David C. Rapoport, “The Four Waves of Modern Terrorism”, in: Attacking Terrorism:
Elements of a Grand Strategy, Audrey Kurth Cronin & James M. Ludes, eds. (Georgetown University Press, 2004), 46-73.
Mats Fridlund, ”How We Learned to Live With the Bombs: Mentalities and Materialities of Urban Terrormindedness“, e-publication on: Looking Back, Looking Beyond: The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Society for the History of Technology, ”National Science Foundation Workshop”, fiftieth.shotnews.net/nsfworkshop/fridlund.pdf, October 2007, 24 pp.
Primary source: Sergey Nechayev, “Cathechism of the Revolutionary” (1869), http://www.geocities.com/countermedia/5.html
Background readings:
Voices of Terror, (Introduction) 8-10, (Cicero) 18, (Plutarch) 19-21, (Aquinas) 27-29, (Buchanan) 39-41, (Saxby) 42-44, (Alfieri) 45-47.
James Lutz & Brenda J. Lutz, ”Ch. 3 Terrorism in the Ancient World”, ”Ch. 4 The Middle Ages to the
Renaissance”, & ”Ch. 5 Terrorism in the Age of Revolutions”, idem, Terrorism: Origins and Evolution, 19-46.
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Week 2: NB! Not Tuesday! 16 or 17/9 First Wave of Terrorism
Home assignment to be presented:
”There existed no difference between terrorism and guerilla struggle in the 19th century.”
(Historian O. Selling)
Is this a correct historical statement? Write a one page (400-700 words) response using as your only sources Sections 1:2 (50-120) and 2:2 (236-282) in Voices of Terror.
Before class each group has to select the best response, make 30 copies of it to bring to class.
Readings:
Lutz & Lutz, ”Ch. 6: The End of the Napoleonic Wars to World War I”, 47-65.
Voices of Terror, (Most), 104-112, (David), 113-116, (de la Hodde) 171-76, (Lombroso) 177-80, (Goldman) 181-85.
Walter Laqueur, ”Interpretations of Terrorism: Fact, Fiction and Political Science”, Journal of Contemporary History 12 (1977), 1-42.
Jeffory A. Clymer, “The 1886 Chicago Haymarket Bombing and the Rhetoric of Terrorism in America”, Yale Journal of Criticism 15 (2002), 315-344.
(2005), 1-3, 31-38, 39-51; Bryan D. Palmer, “CSI Labor History: Haymarket and the Forensics of Forgetting”; Timothy Messer-Kruse, “Reply to Bryan D. Palmer”, Labor 3:1 (2006), 25-40.
Primary sources
Court transcripts & Artifacts, Haymarket Affair Digital Collection, Chicago Historical Society,
http://www.chicagohs.org/hadc/visuals/artifact/artiftoc.htm.
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Week 3: 21/9 Outside security threats: Civilians living with bombs
Readings:
Amy Bell, “Landscapes of fear: wartime London, 1939-1945”, Journal of British Studies 48 (2009), 153-175.
Joanna Bourke, “Nuclear threats”, in idem, Fear: A Cultural History (Virago, 2005), 255-285, 430-437.
Jon Coaffee, "Rings of Steel, Rings of Concrete and Rings of Confidence: Designing out Terrorism in Central London pre and post September 11th", International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 28 (2004), 201-211.
Watching: Movie Battle of Algiers (1967) by Gillo Pontecorvo. Primary source: Copenhagen City Walk
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Week 4: 28/9 Second Wave of Terrorism
Readings:
Lutz & Lutz, “Ch. 7: Terrorist Groups between the Wars” & ”Ch. 8 The End of Empires and Terrorism”, 66-98.
Voices of Terror, (IMRO) 128-30, (Gumbel) 131-35, (Easter Week) 136-37, (Charan) 140-43, (Begin) 144-48, (Al Fatah) 153-57, (ETA).
David Slocum, “Introduction: The recurrent return to Algiers”, in: idem, ed. Terrorism, media, liberation (New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2005), 1-36.
Robert J. Bookmiller, “The Algerian War of Words: Broadcasting and Revolution, 1954-1962", The Maghreb Review 14 (1989), 196-213.
Primary sources: Frantz Fanon, ”Excerpt from The Wretched of the Earth”, in Isaac Cronin, ed. Confronting Fear: A History of Terrorism (Thunder’s Mouth Press, 2002), 47-56.
Jean-Paul Sartre, “Preface to Frantz Fanon, Wretched of the Earth” (1961),
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/sartre/1961/preface.htm
Watching: The Age of Terror: In the name of liberation (2004)
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Week 5: 5/10 Third Wave of Terrorism
Home assignment:Go through
Readings:
Lutz & Lutz, “Ch. 9: The Rise of the New Left and the Failure of Communism: Increasing Terrorism on a Global Scale”, 99-128.
Voices of Terror, (PFLP) 149-52, (Weather Underground) 163-65, (RAF) 166-68, (Debray) 365-69, (Marighella) 370-76, (Guillen) 377-83, (Red Brigades) 469-77,
David C. Rapoport, “The International World as Some Terrorist Have Seen It: A Look at a Century of Memoirs,” in David C. Rapoport, Inside Terrorist Organizations (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988), 32–58.
Mick McGovern, [Eamon Collins and David Ewins], unpublished article, 8 pp.
Watching: The Age of Terrorism: In the Name of God (2004)
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Week 6: 12/10 Fourth Wave of Terrorism
Readings:
Lutz & Lutz, “Ch. 10: From marxism back to Communalism” & ”Conclusions”, 129-168.
Voices of Terror, (Terrorism in Muslim world) 388-449, (East, West & South) 452-68, 477-502.
James L. Gelvin, “Al-Qaeda and Anarchism: A Historian’s Reply to Terrorology,” Terrorism and Political Violence 20 (2008):563-581. With replies and concluding reply by Gelvin. Isabelle Duyvesteyn “How New is the New Terrorism?”, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism
27 (2004), 439-454.
’We Have Some Planes’”, in: The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (New York: Norton & Company, 2004), 1-46. http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Ch1.pdf
Primary Source: John Adams’ On the Transmigration of Souls (2002) by New York Philarharmonic Orchestra conducted by Lorin Maazel.
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Week 8:26/10 Discussions of paper/project proposals
--- Workshop Friday November 12, 9am-7pm at a class room to be determined
Workshop
Culture in terrorism, terrorism in culture:
Cultural constructions & representations of terrorism
Poster presentation & 20 min oral presentation + 20 min discussion
The workshopm will be divided into 3h block with 3 presentations (with breaks) followed by 1h lunch, followed by a second 3h block concluded by a joint 45 min general discussion in class.
Contents to be covered in presentations: - Historiography
- Central works of research - Common research topics
- Two case studies of construction & representation - Three recommended articles/chapters for a course
1. Literature in terrorist practice / terrorism in literature:
Bili Melman, “The Terrorist in Fiction” Journal of Contemporary History, 15 (1980), 559-576.
2. Film in terrorist practice / terrorism in film:
John S. Nelson, “Four Forms for Terrorism: Horror, Dystopia, Thriller, and Noir”, Poroi 2:1 (2003), 79-107.
3. Music in terrorist practice / terrorism in music:
Bill Rolston, “‘This is not a Rebel Song’: The Irish Conflict and Popular Music”, Race & Class 42:3 (2001), 49-67.
4. Art in terrorist practice / terrorism in art:
Jonathan Mccormick & Neil Jarman, ”Death of a Mural”, Journal of Material Culture 10 (2005), 149-71.
5. Video culture in terrorism / terrorism in video culture
David Machin & Usama Suleiman, “Arab and American Computer War Games: The influence of a Global Technology on Discourse”, Critical Discourse Studies 3 (2006), 1-22.
6. Material culture in terrorism / terrorism in material culture:
Peter Hart, “The Thompson Submachine Gun in Ireland Revisited”, in: idem, The I.R.A. at War 1916-1923 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003), 178-193.
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Week 9: 2/11 A Case Study: The Degaev Affair
Readings:
Richard Pipes, The Degaev Affair: Terror and Treason in Tsarist Russia, (Yale University Press, 2003), 153 pp.
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Week 10: 9/11 Inside security threats: Nazi Terror
Home assignment to be presented:Half a page reaction paper on Killing Rage with comments on argument, reliability, bias, sources, historical value (’so what?’).
EXTRA READING: Eamon Collins with Mick McGovern, Killing Rage, Granta Books, 1997, 312 pp.
Readings:
”Wannsee Conference protocol”, http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/Holocaust/wansee-transcript.html
Conspiracy (96 min)
Alan E. Steinweis, “Film review of Conspiracy”, American Historical Review 107 (2002):2. Read review
http://www.nationalreview.com/weekend/television/television-matus051901.shtml
--- November 16 - Last day for handing in petitum
Week 11: 16/11 Representing/constructing security: Securitizing bioterrorism
Readings:
Philipp Sarasin, “The Cobra Event”, in idem, Anthrax: Bioterror as Fact and Fantasy
(Harvard University Press, 2006), 81-119.
Mark Wheelis & Masaaki Sugishima, “Terrorist Use of Biological Weapons”, in: Mark Wheelis, Lajos Rozsa & Malcolm Dando, eds., Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons Since, 1945 (Cambridge, 2006), 284-303.
Margaret E. Kosal, “Art or Bioterrorism? The Implications of the Kurtz Case”, Center for Nonproliferation Studies (July 27, 2004), http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/week/040727.htm ---
Week 12: 23/11 No class – possibilities for advice
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Week 13: 30/11 No class – possibilities for advice
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Week 14: 7/12 Presentation of projects
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Week 15: 14/12 Submitt essays
Summary of half-way evaluation by Mats Fridlund
This is a summary of the feedback on the course given at midterm evaluation, it is divided into structure and course literature and in-class activities.
The overall opinion of the course was positive, which might have to do with those giving this feedback were those chosing to attend the class. However, the amount of students normally showing up in class (15-20) was described as ’what could be expected’ for such a class.
The course structure of meeting once a week for four hours was unusual to most and although some liked it many said that they would have preferred the traditional 2x2 hours a week. One proposal was actually to meet twice a week for a total of 5 hours divided into 2 hours for discussion and lecture and 3 hours for video. The primary reason for meeting twice a week was to divide up the readings more. There was divided opinions about whether the course tried to cover too much time and place and some would have preferred to have the course divided into two courses: one of the history of terrorism before the 1960s and one post-1968 (the last two of Rapoport’s four waves). Several would have liked to see the exploration of more in-depth case studies (like the Haymarket bombing used in the begining of the course) or those now placed later in the course to have come earlier. Also the group project was seen as placed too late in the course when students were mainly focussing on tehir preparing their exam papers. There was a general agreement that it woulld have been good to frontäload the course even more with more reading and class time at the beginning of the course.
The contents of the course literature was described as good and of a normal amount (ca 150pp/week) but because of the course only meeting once a week, several said that it felt like a lot to read. The inclusions of various kinds of primary sources was much appreciated. Several would also have like to have had something to read before the course and/or not so much readings for the first two weeks. Furthermore, several would have liked to have the readings prioritized, which was more important than others as well as what was the most importance within the readings.
About the balance between the different in-class activities, although some would have liked more lecturing, in general it was felt it the balance was good between the time given to discussions, lecturing and video,. Many felt that the use of videos was a good use of the class time, especially as part of a 4-hour meeting with its loss of concentration. But some felt that although the videos was a good addition to the course, they would have preferred to have them streamed and dowloadable for viewing before hand rather than spending time watching them in class. There was however a disagreements whether students would actually see the videos if that was the case.
