Assassination

The assassination of political, religious and military leaders, often dictators, is frequently seen as the short cut to solving a particular problem. The author takes issue with this argument. Examining a series of linked assassinations together with their causes and effects, he seeks to demonstrate that in many cases the killings have produced unforeseen and unintended consequences that all too often result in the opposite result to that desired. His case studies, arranged intriguingly in pairs, cover such diverse characters as Julius Caesar and Thomas a' Becket, Gandhi and Jesus Christ, Tsar Alexander II and Abraham Lincoln, Michael Collins and Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson, and Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. This is an absorbing, controversial and informative study.

hudson Examines A Fascinating Range Of Political Assassinations And Questions Their Political Effectiveness.

kirkus Reviews

does The Killing Of Kings And Religious Leaders Do Anyone Any Good? British Historian Hudson (war And The Media, Not Reviewed) Looks At 18 Famous Cases And Finds That Only One Might Have Accomplished The Killer's Goals. Some Might Object When Hudson Adds Jesus Christ Onto A List That Includes Julius Caesar, Malcolm X, Thomas à Becket, Marat, And Rasputin. Others Might Ask Why Abraham Lincoln Is The Only Us President Among The Murdered Elected Leaders (like Gandhi, Yitzhak Rabin, And South Africa's Hendrick Verwoerd) Who, Hudson Feels, Might Have Changed Their Nations For The Better Had They Died Of Natural Causes. And Why Consider Luckless Victims Like Archduke Franz Ferdinand (whose Killing Started Wwi) And Lord Frederick Cavendish (knocked Off By The Ira), Who, Like So Many Modern Terrorist Targets, Were Killed Because They Happened To Be Easy Prey? It Seems That In Studying The Phenomenology Of Assassination, Hudson Is After Bigger Game. In His Clear, Accessibly Argued Monograph, He Builds On The Ideas Of American Sociologist Alfred Hirschman, Who Wrote Off Assassinations As A Fool's Errand That Can Bring On Only One Of Three Outcomes: A Backlash That Reverses What The Killers May Have Hoped To Accomplish (christ, Caesar, Lincoln), Unforeseen Calamities That Make Things Worse For Everyone (archduke Ferdinand, Czar Nicholas Ii, Michael Collins), Or A Failure To Alter Whatever Social Conditions Inspired The Killing (rasputin, Marat, Rabin). Hudson Finds Only One Exception: Stalin's Killing Of Leon Trotsky, Which He Believes Reinforced Stalin's Reputation As A Ruthlessly Powerful Global Dictator. Lurking Behind Hudson's Study Is The Big Question Oftheextent To Which Individuals Influence The Fate Of Nations. His Carefully Qualified Answer: Not Much. Though Hudson's Choice Of Cases Prefigures His Conclusions, His Evidence Is Incisive Enough To Challenge, If Not Disarm, The Ill-informed Hatemongering Of Those Who Advocate The Killing Of Public Leaders. (30 B&w Illustrations, Not Seen)