Anatomy of the Red Brigades

Alessandro Orsini is professor of political sociology in the Faculty of Political Science, LUISS University of Rome "Guido Carli." He also teaches at the University of Rome "Tor Vergata" and is the author of several books in Italian.

Anatomy of the Red Brigades successfully fills a gap in the scholarship by looking at a religious mindset when examining a form of terrorism that is not intrinsically connected to religion.- Ryan Shaffer (Terrorism and Political Violence) Alessandro Orsini has presented us with a book of high scholarly distinction. Anatomy of the Red Brigades is a tour de force of intellectual history and a major attempt to explain both the Italian experience with terrorism and terrorism in general.(Journal of Cold War Studies) Are terrorists mad, bad, or a combination of the two? It takes a special sort of mind to prepare to kill large numbers of people on the basis of highly speculative political analysis. Orsini's remarkable book gets as close to any to understanding this sort of thinking.- Lawrence D. Freedman (Foreign Affairs) The book will be relevant to scholars not just interested in collective violence, but scholars who are interested in the dogmatization process of terrorists groups, of political ideology, and support for dictators in the contemporary world. This is a uniquely organized book, and it is my assessment that scholars in the future will be comparing it with Christopher Browning's monograph on Nazi holocaust, Ordinary Men.(Mobilization) This is a compelling and accessible book that would benefit both scholars and practitioners in the field of terrorism and political violence. The Red Brigades were one of the most important terrorist groups in modern history. Alessandro Orsini has made an enormous scholarly contribution that explains why. In this way, Orsini's study is not only an explication of the Red Brigades, their background and modus operandi, but is also an examination into the timeless nature of terrorism itself.(Perspectives on Politics)

• Introduction1. The Pedagogy of IntoleranceThe Revolutionary VocationViolence as the Only WayThe "Binary Code" MentalityPolitical Violence and Social MarginalityEschatological Politics2. The Sacralization of PoliticsThe "Fanaticism of a New Religion"Radical CatastrophismThe Revolutionary Sect and the Obsession with PurityThe Hatred of Reformists3. Toward the BloodshedDaily Life in a Revolutionary SectThe Red Brigades' Organization PlanThe Blood Crime and Its "Story"The Path to BloodshedShedding Blood and the Role of the Revolutionary SectThe Detachment from the Surrounding World4. The Genesis of the Red BrigadesThe Red Brigades' Social RootsThe "Cultural Lag" TheoryWhen Were the Red Brigades Born?The Red Brigades: "Imbeciles" or Real Revolutionaries?Antonio Gramsci and "the Hour of Redemption"The Italian Communist Party's Role in the Genesis of the Red BrigadesAn Oxymoron: The "Leninist-Reformist" Party5. The Masters of the Red BrigadesIllustrious Predecessors: Thomas MüntzerJohn of Leiden, King and RevolutionaryThe English Revolution and the Puritan MovementThe French Revolution and the Jacobin ExperimentBabeuf: "The world has plunged into chaos"Karl Marx's Pantoclastic DreamThe Revolutionary Tradition of Russian Populism6. The Purifiers of the World in PowerLenin and State TerrorismThe Bolshevik Revolution and the "Victims of the Victims"The Gulag, or The Promise KeptMao and the Myth of the "New Man"The Cambodian RevolutionNot a Conclusion: Portrait of a Red BrigadistAppendix: Red Brigades and Black BrigadesA Note on MethodBibliographyIndex