ABSTRACT
Happily, there are many excellent summaries and analyses of violence and terror in the United States. 1 Those who now explore the subject are at liberty to interpret terror in the American experience without necessarily analyzing every historical and contemporary event that falls under the rubric of terror. This chapter will be limited to the presentation of three perspectives that will help organize the reader’s present knowledge of terror as well as integrate future events into his or her own experience. The perspectives will highlight several viewpoints concerning the role of terror in America, each embodying propositions about the relationship of terror to social change and exploring ideas about the appropriateness of terror to bring about change. Each embodies its own definition of terror.
