Terrorism: An Introduction, 2002 Update

In the fall of 2001, I was lucky enough to be taking a class at Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, MI to satisfy a requirement for my B.S. in Criminal Justice. The class was CJ 405, titled "Terrorism", and was taught by Professor Jonathan R. White. The man is brilliant, had great stories about what services he performed for the U.S. government, and his book was, at the time, the highest circulated book on terrorism in the world. This is the book that we used, and it is absolutely the best book on terrorism I have ever read. I definitely recommend this to anyone who is seriously interested in the fighting of terrorism.

I recently took a class at my local community college and this book was the book assigned to the class. When I went into this class the only knowledge that I had was that of September 11 and the things that have happened since then. This book covers not only September 11 but the history of what lead up to Septmeber 11. Its a wonderful book, and recommend it to anyone who wants to understand terrorism in todays world.

Prior to Sept. 11, I took a college course on terrorism and this was the only text available at the time. It was accurate and informative then, and remains so today. Jonathan White is one of the foremost experts on terrorism and it's correlation to religion in the United States. If you are entering into the field of criminal justice or public policy, I highly recommend reading this book.

This is an introductory book. As such, it is designed for an audience with little or no background in this topic. Despite this limitation, I have found many people who are well read in this topic, prefer this book over others. I use this book in classes I teach on terrorism because it is, hands down, the best overview of terrorism on the market.

Terrorism: An Introduction is one of the most comprehensive and informative works in print today. A must read for those in the business of combating terrorism.