HIST 2272
Fall 2009
MW 2:55-4:10
Uris Hall G88
Dr. Claudia Verhoeven
Office: 304 McGraw Hall
Office hours: MW 11-12
Phone: 607-255-1876
STUDY OF TERRORISM
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This seminar examines approaches to the study of European terrorism. By the end of the semester, students should have a grasp of 1) the history of terrorism as it developed over the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries (learning in the process how to distinguish terrorism from other forms of modern political violence, e.g. partisan warfare, state terror, etc.) and 2) the ways terrorism has been perceived, presented, and remembered by contemporaries and subsequent generations. Questions, therefore, will include the following: How has terrorism been approached by political theory, history, literature, etc.? How have these approaches constructed terrorism as an object of scientific investigation? How were terrorists perceived and represented by their contemporaries (in the press, literature, art)? How did terrorists represent themselves (in political pamphlets, autobiographies, fiction)? Readings will include archival materials, manifestos, memoirs, and novels, as well as classic pieces of political writing (e.g. Lenin, Schmitt, Arendt).
Walter Laqueur, Voices of Terror: Manifestos, Writings and Manuals of Al Qaeda, Hamas, and other Terrorists from around the World and Throughout the Ages (Sourcebooks, 2005).
Hugh Gough, The Terror in the
French Revolution (Palgrave
Macmillan, 1998).
Carl Schmitt, Theory of the Partisan (Telos, 2007).
Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent (Oxford, 2004)
Frantz
Fanon, Wretched of the Earth (Grove
Press, 2005).
All other readings are available on the course Blackboard website or, in 1 case, JSTOR.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Participation &
Attendance (20%)
Because this is a seminar, it is crucial that you read the week’s assigned texts, be prepared to discuss them, and participate. Each week, one student will introduce the reading/s (5 minutes) and then lead the class into a discussion. Presentations should provide a synthesis of the main ideas, connections to what’s come before, and a set of questions/ideas for discussion. They should not be mere summaries of the readings. Seminar attendance is mandatory. More than two unexcused absences will adversely affect your grade.
There will be 10 discussion forums posted on Blackboard over the course of the semester. For your responses to the questions posed in these forums, you will receive either 1 or 2 points. These forums are not informal chats. Your responses need not be long, but they should be well-written, thoughtful, and, of course, respectful of others’ opinions. Responses should be posted by Sunday evening so that everybody will have a chance to read and think about them before our Monday seminar.
Three response papers (5 pages each) due September 30, October 19, and November 23.
Final Paper (30%)
One final paper (10 pages). Due date TBA.
Films
The films are required. The films are also on reserve in Uris library.
Late Policy: Late papers
will not be accepted. Discussion forum responses must be posted on time.
Academic Integrity:
Students are expected to abide by the Cornell
University Code of Academic Integrity: http://cuinfo.cornell.edu/Academic/AIC.html
CLASS SCHEDULE
Week 1
Aug. 31 Introduction
Sept. 2 Definitions
Oxford English Dictionary Definitions.
Lutz & Lutz, “What Is Terrorism? Definition and Classification,” Global Terrorism, 8-22.
Schmid & Jongman, “Definition,” Political Terrorism, 1-38.
PART I: THE MAKING OF
TERRORISM
Week 2 Terrorism’s
Long History
Sept. 7 Ancient
Sept. 9 Medieval
& Early Modern
Laqueur, “The Origins,” History of Terrorism, 3-10.
Rapoport, “Fear and Trembling,” The
American Political Science Review, Vol. 78, No. 3, 1984, 658-677. Available on JSTOR.
Laqueur, Voices of Terror, Part 1, Section 1: Tyrannicide, 8-26, 39-41, 45-47.
Week 3 La Terreur
Sept. 14
Sept. 16
Gough, The Terror in the French Revolution.
Robespierre, “On the Principles of Political Morality that Should Guide the National Convention in the Domestic Administration of the Republic.”
Recommended:
Browse the website “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: Exploring the French Revolution.”
http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/
Under “Explore,” check “War, the Terror, and Resistance to the French Revolution,” which contains summaries, primary sources, and images.
Week 4 Partisan
Warfare
Sept. 21 Carl Schmitt
Sept. 23 Lev Tolstoy
Carl Schmitt, Theory of the Partisan, 11-25, 33-41, 43-49, 58-60. Reader.
Lev Tolstoy, War and Peace, 1173-1189.
Recommended:
Voices of Terror, Part
2, Sections 1 & 2: The Age of Small War & Napoleon and After.
Week 5 Cultures of Conspiracy
Sept. 28
Sept. 30 First paper due at the beginning of class.
Walter Benjamin, Convolute V (“Conspiracies”), Arcades Project.
Eugene Sue, Mysteries of Paris, 13-15, 22-23, 119-122.
Theodor Griesinger, The Jesuits, 6-14, 48, 54-56, 75-77, 150-154, 279-280.
Nikolai Chernyshevsky, “Extraordinary Man,” What Is to Be Done?
Carr, “The Affaire Nechaev; or the First Terrorist,” Romantic Exiles, 290-298.
Week 6 Russian
Revolutionary Terrorism (a.k.a. “Nihilism”)
Oct. 5
Oct. 7
Yves Ternon, “Russian Terrorism, 1878-1908,” The History of Terrorism from Antiquity to Al Qaeda, 132-174.
Mikhail Bakunin, “Revolution, Terrorism, Banditry,” Voices of Terror, 68-70.
Sergei Nechaev, “Catechism of the Revolutionary,” Voices of Terror, 71-75.
Nikolai Morozov, “Terrorist Struggle,” Voices of Terror, 76-82.
Petr Tkachev, “Program for the Journal The Tocsin.”
Kropotkin, “The Spirit of Revolt,” Voices of Terror, 94-99.
“Program of the People’s Will Group, January 1, 1880.”
Lenin, “Revolutionary Adventurism,” Voices of Terror. 196-199.
Lenin, “Guerrilla Warfare.”
Trotsky, “The Collapse of Terrorism” (I & II), Voices of Terror, 200-206.
Part II The Reception of Terrorism
Week 7 Western
Oct. 12 NO CLASS
Oct. 14
Joseph Conrad, The Secret Agent.
Cesare Lombroso, “The Physiognomy of the Anarchists” (1891). NB: on Blackboard, this reading appears under the heading “Excerpts from the Monist.”
Week 8 Global
Oct. 19 Conrad, The Secret Agent
(cont.). Second paper
due at beginning of class.
Oct. 21 Benedict Anderson, “In the World-Shadow of Bismarck and Nobel,” Under Three Flags, 53-122.
Week
9 Cultural
Oct. 26 Savinkov, Memoirs of a Terrorist, 98-117.
Savinkov, Pale Horse.
Oct. 28 Camus, The Just Assassins.
Camus, The Rebel, 3-5, 164-173.
Monday Oct. 26 Screening of A Rider Named Death (2004) at 6 pm in
MCG 215.
Part III Twentieth
Century
Week 10: Totalitarian
Terror
Nov. 2
Nov. 4
Hannah Arendt, “Ideology and Terror: A Novel Form of Government,” Origins of Totalitarianism.
Bertold Brecht, “The Measure Taken.”
Primo Levi, “Preface,” “On the Bottom,” “The Drowned and the Saved,” Survival in Auschwitz.
Week 11 The Terror of the “Third World”
Nov. 9 NO CLASS
Nov. 11
Monday Nov. 9 Screening of The Battle of Algiers (1966) at 6 pm in MCG 215.
Bruce Hoffman, “The Post-Colonial Era: Ethno-Nationalist/Separatist Terrorism,” Inside Terrorism, 45-65.
Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth. Pages TBA.
Jean-Paul Sartre, “Preface” to Fanon’s Wretched of the Earth.
Albert Camus, “Preface to Algerian Reports” and “Appeal for a Civilian Truce.”
Week 12 The Global Left
November 16
November 18
“The Baader-Meinhof Gang in West Germany,” from Lutz & Lutz, Global Terrorism. Jeremy Varon, Bringing the War Home, pp. 1-10, 20-72, 308-311.
Package Zur Vorstellung des Terrors: die RAF Ausstellung.
Monday Nov. 16 Screening of The Baader-Meinhof Complex (2008) at 6 pm in MCG 215.
Week 13
Nov. 23 D-I-A-L H-I-S-T-O-R-Y. Third paper due at the
beginning of class.
Nov. 25 NO CLASS
Week 14 A New Terrorism?
Nov. 30
Dec. 2
Essay package (including Walter Laqueur, “Postmodern Terrorism,” Jean Baudrillard, “The Spirit of Terrorism,” excerpts from Peter Neumann’s Old and New Terrorism, etc).