THE REVOLUTIONISTS

LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2025 A thrilling and unprecedented account of the radicalism and political extremism that gripped the 1970s a seismic decade that transformed the modern world Brilliant An astonishing window not just into the origins of modern terrorism but also into our own age RORY STEWART Extraordinary told with cool authority and a novelist s eye for detail RORY CARROLL author of Killing ThatcherIn the 1970s a network of extremists terrorised the West with intricately planned plane hijackings and hostage takings Among them were the glamorous Leila Khaled hard drinking Carlos the Jackal and radical leftists of the Baader Meinhof Gang United by their hatred of Israel capitalism and Western imperialism they unleashed a series of audacious attacks that brought governments to their knees and glued the world to their tv screens Drawing on decades of research recently declassified government files secret documents and first hand interviews with hijackers spies witnesses and victims Jason Burke takes us inside these often deadly operations Through the perpetrators eyes and of the unrelenting agents who hunted them down he uncovers a dark complex world of loyalty betrayal and commitment to change at any cost Pi