**An insightful study of how identity is mobilized in and for war in the
face of homegrown terrorism.
**
"You are either with us, or against us" is the refrain that captures the
spirit of the global war on terror. Images of the "them" implied in this
war cry--distinct foreign "others"--inundate Americans on hit television
shows, Hollywood blockbusters, and nightly news. However, in this book,
Piotr Szpunar tells the story of a fuzzier image: the homegrown
terrorist, a foe that blends into the crowd, who Americans are told
looks, talks, and acts "like us."
Homegrown delves into the dynamics of domestic counterterrorism,
revealing the complications that arise when the terrorist threat
involves Americans, both residents and citizens, who have taken up arms
against their own country. Szpunar examines the ways in which identities
are blurred in the war on terror, amid debates concerning who is "the
real terrorist." He considers cases ranging from the white supremacist
Sikh Temple shooter, to the Newburgh Four, ex-convicts caught up in an
FBI informant-led plot to bomb synagogues, to ecoterrorists, to the
Tsarnaev brothers responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing.
Drawing on popular media coverage, court documents, as well as
"terrorist"-produced media, Szpunar poses new questions about the
strategic deployment of identity in times of conflict. The book argues
that homegrown terrorism challenges our long held understandings of how
identity and difference play out in war--beyond "us versus them"--and,
more importantly, that the way in which it is conceptualized and
combatted has real consequences for social, cultural, and political
notions of citizenship and belonging. The first critical examination of
homegrown terrorism, this book will make you question how we make sense
of the actions of ourselves and others in global war, and the figures
that fall in between.
