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Immersive, globe-spanning and full of detail and drama, The Revolutionists is an unprecedented account of a seismic decade that transformed the modern world.

In the 1970s, a network of radical extremists terrorised the West with intricately planned plane hijackings and hostage-takings. Among them were the glamorous young Leila Khaled with her jewellery made from grenade rings, the hard-drinking Carlos the Jackal in shades and designer suits, and the 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 televisions in morbid fascination.

Drawing on decades of research, recently declassified government files, secret documents, and original interviews with hijackers, spies, witnesses and victims, Jason Burke takes us into the lives and minds of the perpetrators of these often-deadly operations. Through their eyes – and the eyes of the unrelenting agents who hunted them down – he uncovers a dark, complex world of loyalty, betrayal and commitment to radical change at any cost.

Set against the backdrop of the Cold War and packed with revelations about iconic events such as the deadly attack on the Munich Olympic, Israel’s raid on Entebbe, the Iranian revolution and the rise of Islamic extremism, this is a sweeping, scrupulously reported historical narrative with the pace and suspense of a thriller.

The Revolutionists pitches the reader into these tumultuous times. Ultimately, it shows how a campaign led by secular, leftist revolutionaries gave way to a far more lethal movement of conservative religious fanaticism that would dominate the decades to come. It is impossible to understand the world today without reading this history.

'Brilliant, beautifully researched, observed and written. An astonishing window not just into the origins of modern terrorism but also into our own age' RORY STEWART

'A book that historians will be consulting and profiting from for many decades to come' TOM HOLLAND

'A riveting read' LINDSEY HILSUM, International Editor, Channel 4 News

'A kaleidoscopic sweep through an extraordinary era told with cool authority and a novelist's eye for detail' RORY CARROLL, author of Killing Thatcher

2025, Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction, Long-listed

© Jason Burke 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025