An Analysis of Modern Terrorism

A welcome contribution to the library comes as a gift from Barry Cooper, a professor of political science at the University of Calgary. His first work on terrorism, New Political Religions, or An Analysis of Modern Terrorism (University of Missouri Press, 2004) is an illuminating work. Cooper cites the work of Eric Voegelin and uses them to explore the differences between terrorists who pursue a ‘first reality’ of legitimate political grievances and those who add a ‘second reality’ – a fantastic objective seen only by those whose rationality has been bent by what Cooper terms a pneumopathological consciousness. Cooper’s first foray into the world of terrorism gives much food for thought.