Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    What Makes a Terrorist: Economics and the Roots of Terrorism
    Unavailable
    What Makes a Terrorist: Economics and the Roots of Terrorism
    Unavailable
    What Makes a Terrorist: Economics and the Roots of Terrorism
    Ebook245 pages4 hours

    What Makes a Terrorist: Economics and the Roots of Terrorism

    By Alan B. Krueger

    4.5/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Many popular ideas about terrorists and why they seek to harm us are fueled by falsehoods and misinformation. Leading politicians and scholars have argued that poverty and lack of education breed terrorism, despite the wealth of evidence showing that most terrorists come from middle-class, and often college-educated, backgrounds. In What Makes a Terrorist, Alan Krueger argues that if we are to correctly assess the root causes of terrorism and successfully address the threat, we must think more like economists do.

    Krueger is an influential economist who has applied rigorous statistical analysis to a range of tough issues, from the minimum wage and education to the occurrence of hate crimes. In this book, he explains why our tactics in the fight against terrorism must be based on more than anecdote and speculation. Krueger closely examines the factors that motivate individuals to participate in terrorism, drawing inferences from terrorists' own backgrounds and the economic, social, and political conditions in the societies from which they come. He describes which countries are the most likely breeding grounds for terrorists, and which ones are most likely to be their targets. Krueger addresses the economic and psychological consequences of terrorism. He puts the terrorist threat squarely into perspective, revealing how our nation's sizeable economy is diverse and resilient enough to withstand the comparatively limited effects of most terrorist strikes. And he calls on the media to be more responsible in reporting on terrorism.

    What Makes a Terrorist brings needed clarity to one of the greatest challenges of our time.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPrinceton University Press
    Release dateSep 2, 2008
    ISBN9781400828838
    Unavailable
    What Makes a Terrorist: Economics and the Roots of Terrorism

    Read more from Alan B. Krueger

    Related to What Makes a Terrorist

    Related ebooks

    Crime & Violence For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    Reviews for What Makes a Terrorist

    4.5/5

    3 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      One of the critical mistakes we can make in the current war on terror is to assume terrorists are poor, uneducated people duped or talked into doing the things they do. Krueger's work sets out to show in a statistical fashion who these people really are. In fact, his analysis shows that terrorists from a wide range of organizations tend to me middle class with higher education, and that our government, at least, has made a number of errors and deliberate misstatements about terrorists and what to do to prevent people from becoming terrorists. What Makes A Terrorist? is based on a set of lectures given by Krueger, and isn't as deep as I'd like, but it does offer a real statistical analysis of the situation. He's honest about the limitations of his data gathering, and his statistical analysis seems correct to me (although I'm an informed layman rather than an expert in statistical analysis). In addition, the transcribed lecture format seems terse. Nonetheless, it's a good book.