The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE • An epic, authoritative, gripping account of the years when a new wave of revolutionaries held the world for ransom

In the 1970s, an unprecedented wave of international terrorism broke out. Ambitious, networked, and far-reaching, new armed groups terrorized the world with intricately planned plane hijackings and hostage missions, leaving governments scrambling to cope. Their motives were as diverse as their methods. Some sought to confront Israel, others to topple Western imperialism or battle capitalism; a few simply sought adventure or power. Among them were the unflappable young Leila Khaled, sporting jewelry made from ammunition; the maverick Carlos the Jackal, with his taste for cigars, fine dining, and designer suits; and the radical leftists of the “Baader-Meinhof Gang” and the Japanese Red Army. Their attacks forged a lawless new battlefield thirty thousand feet in the air, evading the reach of security agencies, policymakers, and spies alike. Their operations rallied activists and networks in places where few had suspected their existence, leaving a trail of chaos from Bangkok to Paris to London to Washington, D.C.

Veteran foreign correspondent Jason Burke provides a thrilling account of this era of spectacular violence. Drawing on decades of research, recently declassified government files, still-secret documents, and original interviews with hijackers, double agents, and victims who continue to grieve their loved ones, The Revolutionists provides an unprecedented account of a period that definitively shaped today’s world and probes the complex relationship between violence, terrorism, and revolution. From the deserts of Jordan to the Munich Olympics to the Iranian Embassy siege in London and the Beirut bombings of the early 1980s, Burke invites us into the lives and minds of the perpetrators of these attacks, as well as the government agents and top officials who sought to foil them. Charting, too, such shattering events as the Iranian Revolution and the Lebanese civil war, he shows how, by the 1980s, a campaign for radical change led by secular, leftist revolutionaries had given way to a far more lethal movement of conservative religious fanaticism that would dominate the decades to come.

Driven by an indelible cast of characters moving at a breakneck pace, full of detail and drama, The Revolutionists is the definitive account of a dark and seismic decade.