March 6, 2008

Library Misread

I was perusing in the library the other day, when I saw a book that stopped me in my tracks.
"White Terrorism"

That title alone set off a chain reaction in my mind. The subject of white terrorism undermines the popular associations between race and terror (the popular belief that terrorists are brown people and brown people are terrorist). An understanding of the IRA in Ireland, the Red Brigade in Germany and Timothy McVeigh and the Unabomber in the United States should help create a more general and accurate picture of the roots of terrorism.

So, I checked out the book and started reading. After getting to the section on religious terrorism in the Middle East, I realized that my initial assessment was incorrect. Turns out, the correct title is simply "Terrorism" and the author is Jonathan R. White. My problem was that I read the spine of the book as "White Terrorism: an introduction" but should be read as "White - Terrorism: an introduction."

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