Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book examines how Jodi Picoult deals with domestic terrorism and white nationalism in Small Great Things. It also examines the literary representation of terrorism from the nineteenth through to the very early twentieth century. The book provides an archeology of “terrorism” from its original coinage as a dismissive adjective applying to the French revolution to its contemporary usage. It analysis the relationship between “Isabel Meredith”, A Girl Among Anarchists, and Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent. Terrorism and the Herculean efforts to protect against it shapes nearly every aspect of modern life, from regulations governing bank accounts to how we travel to the privacy of our communications and web activity. Fictions have always offered the tools for a better understanding of terrorism.