We are inclined to see terrorist attacks as an aberration, a violent incursion into our lives that bears no intrinsic relation to the fundamental features of modern societies. But does this view misconstrue the relationship between terror and modernity?

In this book, philosopher Donatella Di Cesare takes a historical approach and argues that terror is not a new phenomenon, but rather one that has always been a key part of modernity. At its most basic level, terrorism is about the struggle for power and sovereignty. The growing concentration of power in the hands of the state, which is a constitutive feature of modern societies, sows the seeds of terrorism, which is deployed as a weapon by those who are exposed to the violence of the state and feel that they have no other recourse.

As Di Cesare illustrates her argument with examples ranging from the Red Brigades and 9/11 to jihadism and ISIS, her sophisticated analysis will appeal to anyone who wishes to understand contemporary terrorism more deeply, as well as to students and scholars of philosophy and political theory.

Donatella Di Cesare is Professor of Theoretical Philosophy at the Sapienza University of Rome.

Chapter One. Planetary Terror1. Bataclan2. War on Terror3. Global Civil War4. The Bomb of Modernity5. The Ghost of Bin Laden6. Philosophies of Terrorism7. Red Brigades, RAF, and the Impossible Exchange8. The Absolute Weapon of Ones Own Death9. Atmoterrorism: Auschwitz, Dresden, Hiroshima, etc.10. Heidegger and the Ban of Existence from the Biosphere11. The Monopoly of Negation12. The Metaphysics of the Terrorist AttackChapter Two. Terror, Revolution, Sovereignty1. A Brand Name2. Defusing Terrorism3. Notes on Fear, Anxiety, and Terror4. Revolutionary Terror is Not Terrorism5. Are Terrorists Nihilists?6. Why defend anarchists7. Dostoyevski and the Terrorist within Me8. Terror and Sovereignty: On Lenin9. Once Upon a Time There Was a Revolution10. The Partisan, the Guerrilla, the TerroristChapter Three. Jihadism and Modernity1. Radicalization2. The Political Theology of the Planetary Neo-caliphate3. The Postmodern Horsemen of the Apocalypse4. The Path to Terror5. Cyberterrorism6. Jihadist Thanathopolitics7. Media, New Media, and Terror8. The Car Bomb9. Explosions, Massacres, Decapitations10. Vulnerability, or Innocence Lost11. The Negated Ethics of the Hostage12. The Future in the Time of TerrorChapter Four. The New Phobocracy1. Clash of Civilizations, Class Struggle, or Holy War?2. The Offensive of Radicalized Secularism3. Hermeneutics Counters Violence4. Sedative or Stimulant? Religion According to Marx5. The Left and Jihad6. Spanish BrigadesÐSyrian Brigades7. The Terrorism of Global Capitalism8. Democracy Put to the Test by Anti-terrorism9. Snowden: On Planetary Surveillance10. The New PhobocracyNotesSelected Bibliography