In this widely acclaimed study, Charles Townshend reexamines the historical circumstances that generated violence as a habitual part of political dialogue in Ireland. Drawing on an extensive range of original sources, he describes and analyzes the crucial relationship between the use of terror and intimidation by resistance groups and the efforts of government to impose authority by force.

In recent years, such episodes as the death of Blair Peach, the Miners' Strike, the Scarman Report, and the Ponting and Stalker affairs have raised serious doubts as to whether the "British trick" of maintaining law and order by consensus is still feasible. Beginning with the Swing, Chartist, and Plug Riots, Charles Townshend shows how public order was steadily tightened during the Victorian era and how that process has continued throughout this century, thanks to such legislation as the Official Secrets, Public Order, Defence of the Realm, and Emergency Powers Acts. This is a wide-ranging...

Is terrorism crime or war? Can there be a 'war against terrorism'? In this fully updated edition, Charles Townshend unravels the questions at the heart of the problem of terrorism - its causes, methods, effects, and limitations - suggesting that it must be understood as a political strategy whose threat can be rationally grasped and answered.