Invitation to Terror: The Expanding Empire of the Unknown

Invitation to Terror: The Expanding Empire of the Unknown

by Frank Furedi (Author)

Synopsis

Virtually everyone agrees that terrorism is defined by its impact on the public it targets. Yet there seems to be very little open discussion about how society has responded to it and how people are affected by it. This is no small gap in our understanding of 21st century terrorism. Invitation to Terror argues that what we really need to worry about is not what terrorists do but our reaction to it. It argues that Western society lacks the cultural and intellectual resources to deal with this threat. Politicians who frequently claim that 'our way of life' faces an existential threat find it difficult to explain just what that way of life is and why it is worth defending - inadvertently invites acts of terrorism. This book details how, as society has become increasingly apprehensive about the future, it has reached the point where it regards itself as a vulnerable target. This defensive response is influenced by many causes the most important of which is the difficulty society has in endowing conflict and the threat it faces with meaning. The words used to describe the threat of terrorism - unimaginable, incomprehensible, beyond meaning - serve to deflect our understanding of the issues at stake. Furedi argues that the problem is not 'them' and does not come from 'there'. It is us and comes from within. The good news is that it is not very difficult to diminish the impact of this threat through changing the way we engage with it.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 240
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Continuum
Published: 30 Oct 2007

ISBN 10: 0826499570
ISBN 13: 9780826499578

Media Reviews
''Invitation to Terror is a bold attempt to face important and disturbing questions, and hits a number of its targets'' John Dunn, Times Literary Supplement, August 2008
Mentioned on Social Vision (web), October 2007--Social Vision (web)
Interview, Kent (University Magazine). Spring 2008.
Publication mentioned in 'Kent' the magazine for University of Kent, Spring 2008
Discussion of topic, The Australian. 4 February 2009.
Mentioned on Social Vision (web), October 2007--,
Title mentioned, Sunday Herald (Glasgow). 3 May 2009.
Author article on media fear, Sunday Herald (Glasgow). 3 May 2009.
Author mentioned title in article.TimesOnline, 15 March 2009
Furedi is a sociologist, adept at the analysis of culture... Invitation to Terror is a bold attempt to face important and disturbing questions The Times Literary Supplement, August 2008
Author mentioned title in article. TimesOnline, 15 March 2009
Mentioned on Social Vision (web), October 2007--Sanford Lakoff
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--Sanford Lakoff
Invitation to Terror has a relevence to policy makers far outside of the security arena Tribune--Sanford Lakoff
He (Frand Furedi) is good at noticing history repeating itself - for example, in 'the periodic discovery that terrorism represents a new and unprecedented danger' - and interrogates usefully the notions of 'vulnerability' or being 'at risk' Saturday Guardian--Sanford Lakoff
Author Bio
Frank Furedi is Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent at Canterbury. He is the author of numerous books including Culture of Fear, Politics of Fear and Where Have all the Intellectuals Gone?, all published by Continuum.