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Hardcover Violent Politics: A History of Insurgency, Terrorism, and Guerrilla War, from the American Revolution to Iraq Book

ISBN: 0061236195

ISBN13: 9780061236198

Violent Politics: A History of Insurgency, Terrorism, and Guerrilla War, from the American Revolution to Iraq

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Format: Hardcover

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Book Overview

In the current Middle East, insurgency tactics are used with frequency and increasing success. But guerrilla war-fare is not just the tool of modern-day terrorists. Its roots stretch back to our very own revolution. In Violent Politics , William Polk takes us on a concise, brilliant tour of insurgencies throughout history, starting with the American struggle for independence, when fighters had to battle against both the British and the loyalists, those colonists who sided with the monarchy. Instinctively, in a way they probably wouldn't have described as a coherent strategy, the rebel groups employed the tactics of insurgency. From there, Polk explores the role of insurgency in several other notable conflicts, including the Spanish guerrilla war against Napoleon, the Irish struggle for independence, the Algerian War of National Independence, and Vietnam. He eventually lands at the present day, where the lessons of this history are needed more than ever as Americans engage in ongoing campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq--and beyond.

Customer Reviews

4 customer ratings | 4 reviews

Rated 5 stars
An Education

This book offers further proof that those who don't understand history are destined to repeat it It is a comprehensive and clear discussion of the history of insurgency from the American Revoloution through the current mess in Iraq. I think of it as an education in one book. I found the history of the troubles in Ireland especially enlightening. Anyone who can continue to defend our incursions into Vietnam and Iraq after...

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Rated 5 stars
Violent Politics: A History of Insurgency, Terrorism ...

An extraordinary review of the political history of terrorism from a master of the history and culture of the middle east.

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Rated 5 stars
A must read book

This is an important book. William Polk reviews important insurgencies from the American Revolution to Iraq. He lays out principles of successful and failed insurgencies and equally importantly why interventions fail. Shelby Foote, the great Civil War historian, relates a brief story about a Union officer interrogating a captured Confederate soldier that summarizes an important part of William Polk's thesis. The officer asks,"Why...

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Rated 4 stars
A good review of insurgency, terrorism, and guerilla warfare

This is a book about insurgency and some of its major tools--terrorism and guerilla warfare. William Polk begins by observing that one factor is common to insurgencies (page xiii): "no matter how they differ in form, duration, and intensity, a single thread runs through them all: opposition to foreigners. Occupation by outsiders creates the conditions for insurgency, then. That is the central thesis of his book. Throughout...

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Rated 5 stars
Condensed But Powerful

Foreign Service and State Department people are immensely knowledegable about their areas. It means learning an odd language or two, absorbing many volumes of history and past international relations, becoming respectful of myriad social customs and religious practices and consequently forming a political astuteness that will be useful to the boss in Washington. Of course, when the boss communes with God and gets direction...

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