cover image Violent Persuasions: The Politics & Imagery of Terrorism

Violent Persuasions: The Politics & Imagery of Terrorism

. Bay Press (WA), $19.95 (298pp) ISBN 978-0-941920-25-4

This book, which argues that terrorism includes a wide spectrum of governmental acts of violence and repression for political ends, is based on a 1992 exhibition and symposium at the Maryland Institute, College of Art in Baltimore. If the overbroad premise vitiates credibility, contributors make some potent criticism of the mainstream terminology of terrorism: Merrill points out that in the early 1980s CIA ignored terrorism practiced by right-wing groups supported by the U.S.; Ramsey Clark points out that most murders are committed by people who know their victims, not by the terrorists Americans are taught to fear. Angela Sanbrano of CISPES, long critical of U.S. policy toward El Salvador, tells how the FBI harassed her organization, while American Indian Movement activist Ward Churchill describes the FBI's ``low-intensity warfare'' on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the mid-1970s. The book should stimulate greater criticism of the media's failure to place discussions of terrorism in a larger context. Brown is director of exhibitions at the Institute; Merrill chairs its language and literature department. Illustrations not seen by PW. (Jan.)