Issue No.
7
December 2007
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| Welcome to Nov’s Review of Books |
 Tim Black
Western officials waging a war against terrorism often claim to be engaged in a ‘battle of ideas’. But what ideas are they battling to defend? That is never made clear. Aside from a rhetorical championing of the Western ‘way of life’ (whatever that might mean) and ‘Western values’ (which no one dares define), big ideas are notable by their absence on this battlefield. This spiked review of books unpicks the terror phenomenon. I interview Frank Furedi about his new book Invitation to Terror. Elsewhere, Furedi argues that foreign policy is driven by incoherence, and ‘humanitarianism’ is the antithesis of humanism. In defence of the Terror, Dolan Cummings reviews a new edition of Maximilien Robespierre’s speeches, and finds that, for all the claims that Robespierre is the father of modern terrorism, he was incorruptibly committed to liberty and progress: a million miles from today’s webcam jihadists. Plus: the dogma of transparency, the Motherhood Wars, the world’s biggest miserabilist, and more. Enjoy! [Cover illustration by Jan Bowman.]
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