Monday, July 1, 2024

Terrorism and the Surveillance State

 


The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective by Steven Johnson is an engaging popular history of the rise and expansion of violent anarchism at the turn of the century.  With the invention of dynamite, terrorism became economical, and one person with a bomb could cause a great deal of death and destruction.

Johnson takes us on a voyage that would be repeated many times in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.  With the rise of terror organizations, the state would increasingly exercise more authority over its citizens.  Terrorism and the Surveillance State, Johnson shows us, were born at the same time. 


No comments:

Post a Comment