The Demon Lover
The Roots of Terrorism
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A riveting exploration of terrorism’s relationship to sex, with a new preface by the author
Terrorism is the international crime that has captured the attention of the entire world, forcing governments to make radical changes in security and civil liberties. Meanwhile, everyone tries to comprehend the real reasons that inspire such violence.
This is where political philosopher Robin Morgan begins The Demon Lover, a groundbreaking work of investigative journalism and a bestseller in the print edition. Through her globe-spanning examination of terrorism, Morgan unearths the roots of the phenomenon. With wide-ranging research across historical eras and a three-hundred-sixty-degree approach, she examines how violence has become eroticized—and conflated with masculinity—to the lethal detriment of both women and men.
Recent scientific studies referenced in the preface to this edition prove just how ahead of her time Morgan has been with her analysis. Her account of her own personal experience with militant tactics adopted by US radicals in the 1960s and 1970s is extraordinary, and her reports on and interviews with Palestinian women in the refugee camps of the Middle East—women confiding for the first time, as women, details of their lives under terrorism every day—are deeply moving. Morgan also offers a compelling vision of hope for change, and an afterword includes her famous “Letters from Ground Zero,” written after 9/11.
The Demon Lover is Robin Morgan at her most intelligent and unforgettable.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Despite its overlay of rhetoric, Morgan's challenging feminist diatribe brings a startling perspective to terrorism, which she sees as arising out of patriarchal societies' emphasis on power, control, domination and violence. In her definition, left-wing urban guerrillas, CIA dirty tricks, the Contras, white supremacist groups, nation a list resistance movements and the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima are all terrorist acts. She traces the seeds of terrorism to the mythic herowarrior, god-king, liberatorwho glorifies vengeance. Moving into modern times, Morgan ( Sisterhood Is Global , etc.) detects a sexual component in man's penchant for violent means, and she draws on works by Henry James, Graham Greene, Doris Lessing and Marge Piercy for support. On a more personal note, she analyzes ``token terrorist'' women and considers herself to have been one in the late '60s. She also interviews women in Palestinian refugee camps and includes a 1978 prison talk with Patti Hearst. Morgan ends by calling for a politics of eros, of fierce tenderness, connectivity and caring.
