Looks at the history and motivation of the Red Brigades, recounts the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, and assesses Italy's anti-terrorist efforts.

The Red Brigades were a far-left terrorist group in Italy formed in 1970 and active all through the 1980s. Infamous around the world for a campaign of assassinations, kidnappings, and bank robberies intended as a "concentrated strike against the heart of the State," the Red Brigades' most notorious crime was the kidnapping and murder of Italy's former prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978. In the late 1990s, a new group of violent anticapitalist terrorists revived the name Red Brigades and killed a number of professors and government officials. Like their German counterparts in the Baader-Meinhof Group and today's violent political and religious extremists, the Red Brigades and their actions raise a host of questions about the motivations, ideologies, and mind-sets of people who commit horrific acts of violence in the name of a utopia. In the first English edition of a book that has won critical acclaim and major prizes in Italy, Alessandro Orsini contends that the dominant logic of the Red Brigades was essentially eschatological, focused on purifying a corrupt world through violence. Only through revolutionary terror, Brigadists believed, could humanity be saved from the putrefying effects of capitalism and imperialism. Through a careful study of all existing documentation produced by the Red Brigades and of all existing scholarship on the Red Brigades, Orsini reconstructs a worldview that can be as seductive as it is horrifying. Orsini has devised a micro-sociological theory that allows him to reconstruct the group dynamics leading to political homicide in extreme-left and neonazi terrorist groups. This "subversive-revolutionary feedback theory" states that the willingness to mete out and suffer death depends, in the last analysis, on how far the terrorist has been incorporated into the revolutionary sect. Orsini makes clear that this political-religious concept of historical development is central to understanding all such self-styled "purifiers of the world." From Thomas Müntzer's theocratic dream to Pol Pot's Cambodian revolution, all the violent "purifiers" of the world have a clear goal: to build a perfect society in which there will no longer be any sin and unhappiness and in which no opposition can be allowed to upset the universal harmony. Orsini’s book reconstructs the origins and evolution of a revolutionary tradition brought into our own times by the Red Brigades.

First published in 1873, ‘Life in the Red Brigade’ by popular author R.M. Ballantyne is an adventure story which follows young firefighter Joe Dashwood and his exploits with the London fire service during its earliest days. Joe and his colleagues face all sorts of problems and dangers as they dash around London attending calls for their urgent services. A fascinating story, and a delightful peek at an institution in its infancy. R.M. Ballantyne (1825-1894) was a Scottish artist and prolific author of mostly children’s fiction. Born in Edinburgh, Ballantyne was the ninth of ten children. At the age of 16 Ballantyne moved to Canada, where he worked for the Hudson’s Bay Company, travelling all over the country to trade for fur. He returned to Scotland in 1847 following the death of his father, and it was then that he began his literary career in earnest, writing over 100 children’s adventure books over the course of his life. Stories such as ‘The Coral Island’ and ‘The Young Fur Traders’ were hugely popular, and many of them drew on his own experiences of travelling throughout Canada. A stickler for detail, Ballantyne continued to travel widely to research the backgrounds and settings for his exciting stories. His tales became an inspiration for authors of the future, including ‘Treasure Island’ novelist Robert Louis Stevenson. Ballantyne spent the latter period of his life living in London and Italy for the sake of his health. He died in Rome in 1894 at the age of 68.

* Selected as ONE of the BEST BOOKS of the 21st CENTURY by The New York Times * NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST * New York magazine’s #1 Book of the Year * Best Book of the Year by: The Wall Street Journal; Vogue; O, The Oprah Magazine; Los Angeles Times; The San Francisco Chronicle; The New Yorker; Time; Flavorwire; Salon; Slate; The Daily Beast “Superb…Scintillatingly alive…A pure explosion of now.”—The New Yorker Reno, so-called because of the place of her birth, comes to New York intent on turning her fascination with motorcycles and speed into art. Her arrival coincides with an explosion of activity—artists colonize a deserted and industrial SoHo, stage actions in the East Village, blur the line between life and art. Reno is submitted to a sentimental education of sorts—by dreamers, poseurs, and raconteurs in New York and by radicals in Italy, where she goes with her lover to meet his estranged and formidable family. Ardent, vulnerable, and bold, Reno is a fiercely memorable observer, superbly realized by Rachel Kushner.

December 17, 2021, marks the 40th anniversary of the kidnapping of then Brigadier General James Lee Dozier in Verona, Italy by Red Brigade terrorists. Dozier was held captive for 42 days before being rescued by a special operations team -- a news story that made front-page headlines around the world. At the moment news of his rescue broke, everyone was asking: How did he manage to survive this? The source of that resilience is the compelling story that unfolds in Finding My Pole Star, an inspiring message as timely today as it was four decades ago. Major General James Lee Dozier retired from military service after serving 35 years with the U.S. Army and NATO in the United States, Europe and Asia. In his new memoir, Finding My Pole Star, this American hero recalls the traumatic kidnapping, his military leadership career, his civilian life as a successful business executive and his active community volunteerism. He inspires us with the timeless values that have guided his life of duty, honor, country and faith -- values that can help each of us as we thrive while facing our own fears. "This book is a must-read account of a highly accomplished and effective leader in both military and community pursuits," Rear Admiral A. Scott Logan, U.S. Navy (retired) writes in endorsing the book. "It provides a road map for all individuals who desire to develop and pursue their own life-long Pole Star as their guiding light for an ethical, meaningful and successful life of service to God, community and all mankind." "Rock solid integrity and common-sense advice, sprinkled with a sense of humor, define this superb soldier," writes Brigadier General John "Doc" Bahnsen, U.S. Army (retired). Among the stories General Dozier tells in this book are his journey from a tiny high school and junior college eventually to the halls of West Point; his service in Vietnam with Col. George S. Patton III, the son of the famous World War II general; his appearance on the front cover of the inspirational magazine Guideposts; and his later-in-life career in agriculture as a citrus grower in Florida. Through it all, General Dozier tells us, he was guided by his "pole star," a reference to the ability of mariners since ancient times to navigate using the stars in the heavens to guide them. "As it gave comfort to the mariner, it is also a directional pointer to one's life and ... represents ethics, morality, and religious values and beliefs," Dozier's friend and editor Commander Douglas B. Quelch, U.S. Navy (retired) writes in the book's opening pages. In his endorsement of Finding My Pole Star, Admiral Logan concludes simply "This is a book for these times!"

Aldo Moro's kidnapping and violent death in 1978 had much the same effect in Italy as the assassination of President John F. Kennedy had in the U.S., with both cases giving rise to endless conspiracy theories. Drake provides a detailed portrait of the tragedy and its aftermath as complex symbols of a turbulent age in Italian history.

The history of Italy’s victory over the Red Brigades offers lessons that may be useful to America’s future. The United States has suffered from the horrors of home grown and global terrorism but so far has been spared the endemic violence of the kind that plagued Italy during the years of lead that are described in this volume. In 2003, Philip Heymann compared the US favorably to Italy, expressing relief that American society did not suffer from the kind of deep divisions that had created the conditions for the rise of the Red Brigades. Fifteen years later, Heymann’s confidence no longer looks so well founded. The political divisions in the United States have widened and become stubbornly entrenched. The combination of conspiratorial thinking, ideological division and a powerful sense of grievance, combined with the easy access to powerful weapons and a cult of political violence, should worry all those who are sworn to keep the peace.