A01=Simon Ball
Abraham Lincoln
Author_Simon Ball
Bhutto
Black Ops
Category=JPSH
Category=JPVR1
Category=NH
Category=NHB
CIA
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Espionage
Franz Ferdinand
Gandhi
Iran
Israel
JFK
Lone wolf
Malcolm X
osama bin ladein
Osama bin Laden
Political murder
Soleimani
Special Forces
Product details
- ISBN 9780300258042
- Dimensions: 156 x 235mm
- Publication Date: 22 Jul 2025
- Publisher: Yale University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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A deeply researched history of assassination in the modern world, from Franz Ferdinand to Osama bin Laden
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Leon Trotsky, Reinhard Heydrich, Mahatma Gandhi, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Osama bin Laden, Qasem Soleimani: assassination—the murder of a specific individual by an organised conspiracy in pursuit of political ends—has rarely failed to grip the imagination.
In this incisive new history, Simon Ball shows how targeted political murder has become a tool of democratic states but also a key strategy of those who wish to topple them. Ball introduces us to the techniques of assassination and those who wield them, as well as the security regimes that have developed to prevent this violent practice. From the First World War and the age of empire to terrorism and the development of pilotless drones, Death to Order places assassination at the heart of modern political history—and shows how it continues to impact our world.
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Leon Trotsky, Reinhard Heydrich, Mahatma Gandhi, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Osama bin Laden, Qasem Soleimani: assassination—the murder of a specific individual by an organised conspiracy in pursuit of political ends—has rarely failed to grip the imagination.
In this incisive new history, Simon Ball shows how targeted political murder has become a tool of democratic states but also a key strategy of those who wish to topple them. Ball introduces us to the techniques of assassination and those who wield them, as well as the security regimes that have developed to prevent this violent practice. From the First World War and the age of empire to terrorism and the development of pilotless drones, Death to Order places assassination at the heart of modern political history—and shows how it continues to impact our world.
Simon Ball is professor of international history and politics at the University of Leeds. He is the author of six acclaimed books, including Secret History, The Bitter Sea, and The Guardsmen.
