How has terrorism taken over the modern world? Matthew Carr provides a new, erudite and - for the first time - profound understanding of terrorism, putting today's problems in context by tracing its global history over a period of more than 100 years. Since 9/11, governments across the world have identified terrorism as a unique modern evil that threatens democracy and even civilisation itself. But terrorism has a long (and bizarre) history. In March 1881, when a group of Russian revolutionaries assassinated Tsar Alexander II, in accordance with a new strategy of violence that its protagonists called terrorism, their organization regarded the assassination as a heroic and even humanitarian act. Today, the technique of violence has become the scourge of the modern world. Unknown Soldiers shows how terrorists have come to assume the undue prominence that they have today, cutting through the propaganda of governments who have portrayed terrorists as animals. It provides an understanding of terrorists through sources including fiction and cinema and shows the extent of the present threat. This tracing of the story of terrorism is stunning in its breadth, its detail and its insight.