Assassination

by Miles Hudson (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2010

  $3.30

  The assassination of political, religious and military leaders, often dictators, is frequently seen as the short cut to solving a particular problem. The author takes issue with this argument. Examining a series of linked assassinations together with their causes and effects, he seeks to demonstrate that in many cases the killings have produced unforeseen and unintended consequences that all too often result in the opposite result to that desired. His case studies, arranged intriguingly in pairs, cover such diverse characters as Julius Caesar and Thomas a Becket, Gandhi and Jesus Christ, Tsar Alexander II and Abraham Lincoln, Michael Collins and Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, and Martin Luther King and Malcolm X.This is an absorbing, controversial and informative study.

• Used

  Paperback
  2002

  $12.00

  Throughout history the desire by man to change the course of political history through the act of murder has been strong. In some instances the assassination of a prominent person for political purposes has achieved a short-term result; with several the results have been the complete opposite of what was hoped for; and in the long-term, some have been utter failures. Miles Hudson examines a range of political assassinations to establish whether or not these acts achieved their political aims. He touches on the question of whether the course of history can be determined by individuals and if so, to what extent. He also asks whether individual leaders are merely the result, and not the cause, of political evolution. His narrative ranges from historical examples like Julius Caesar, Thomas a Becket and Marat, through to famous 20th-century victims of assassination including Rasputin, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King and Yitzhak Rabin. In all these cases the act of assassination has been motivated by a positive political purpose, rather than attacks by a lunatic or someone driven by personal hatred or revenge. He concludes by arguing that assassination cannot reverse a historical tide, but it can hasten an evolution already started, and perhaps more importantly, can push events in a desired direction where no clear drift exists.