From Paris to San Bernardino, Barcelona to Manchester, home-grown
terrorism is among the most urgent challenges confronting Western
nations. Attempts to understand jihadism have typically treated it as a
form of political violence or religious conflict. However, the closer we
get to the actual people involved in radicalization, the more
problematic these explanations become.
In this fascinating book, Kevin McDonald shows that the term
radicalization unifies what are in fact very different experiences.
These new violent actors, whether they travelled to Syria or killed at
home, range from former drug dealers and gang members to students and
professionals, mothers with young children and schoolgirls. This
innovative book sets out to explore radicalization not as something done
to people but as something produced by active participants, attempting
to make sense of themselves and their world. In doing so, McDonald
offers powerful portraits of the immersive worlds of social media so
fundamental to present-day radicalization.
Radicalization offers a bold new way of understanding the contemporary
allure of jihad and, in the process, important directions in responding
to it.
