The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s

In the 1970s, an unprecedented wave of international terrorism broke out around the world. More ambitious, networked and far-reaching than ever before, new armed groups terrorized the West with intricately planned plane hijackings and hostage missions, leaving governments scrambling to cope. Their motives were as diverse as their methods. Some sought to champion Palestinian liberation, others to topple Western imperialism or battle capitalism; a few simply sought adventure or power. In his new book The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s, veteran foreign correspondent Jason Burke tells their story in what the New York Times calls a “sprawling, extensively researched story” that is buttressed by dozens of interviews and decades of research in 12 languages including recently declassified government files, still secret documents, and original interviews with hijackers, double agents, and victims still grieving their loved ones. Burke traces the key events that shaped their lives and also how, by the early 1980s, a campaign for radical change led by secular, leftist revolutionaries had given way to a far more lethal movement of conservative religious fanaticism that would dominate the decades to come.

Join New America's Future Security Program as they welcome Jason Burke for a discussion of his new book The Revolutionists. Jason Burke is the international security correspondent for The Guardian. He has been a foreign correspondent for almost thirty years, reporting from the Middle East, South Asia, Europe, and Africa. In addition to The Revolutionists, he is the author of four critically acclaimed books: The New Threat: The Past, Present, and Future of Islamic Militancy; The 9/11 Wars; Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam; and On the Road to Kandahar: Travels Through Conflict in the Islamic World.

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Participants:

Jason Burke

Author, The Revolutionists

International Security Correspondent, The Guardian

Moderator:

Peter Bergen
Vice President, New America
Co-Director, Future Security
Professor of Practice, Arizona State University