Description
Book SynopsisIn 2017, nearly six thousand people were killed in suicide attacks across the world.
In The Smile of the Human Bomb, Gideon Aran dissects the moral logic of the suicide terrorism that led to those deaths. The book is a firsthand examination of the bomb site at the moment of the explosion, during the first few minutes after the explosion, and in the last moments before the explosion. Aran uncovers the suicide bomber's final preparations before embarking on the suicide mission: the border crossing, the journey toward the designated target, penetration into the site, and the behavior of both sides within it. The book sheds light on the truth of the human bomb.
Aran's gritty and often disturbing account is built on a foundation of participant observation with squads of pious Jewish volunteers who gather the scorched fragments of the dead after terrorist attacks; newly revealed documents, including interrogation protocols; interviews with Palestinian armed resistance m
Trade Review
By departing from the traditional political, military, economic, and theological analyses of terrorism, Aran presents an intriguing and novel view of the issue.
* Publishers Weekly *
A conceptually innovative examination of suicide terrorism.... One of the book's unique contributions is its analysis of suicide terrorism from an anthropological-sociological perspective, based on the author's extensive field research in Israel and the West Bank.... An important contribution to the literature on suicide bombing attacks.
* Perspectives on Terrorism *
