Terrorism : a guide to library resources for Anthropology

Contents:

Related subject guide which may be helpful:
War

Starting Points

When you need to define your topic and/or get some background reading try consulting a dictionary or encyclopedia on terrorism. The guide to Anthropology dictionaries/encyclopedias will help if you need explanations of anthropological terminology or theory.

For information on terrorist groups, individuals and incidents try:

FAS Intelligence Resource Program
MIPT (Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism)
RAND voices of Jihad database

To find overviews on the subject try the following:

Country reports on terrorism [web access]
[Issued annually from 2004 by the U.S. Department of State. Also available from this site is full-text access to Patterns of Global Terrorism - the publication which preceded it. See the next entry below for a complementary publication]

Patterns of global terrorism 1985-2005 [web access]
[Drawn from the annual report of the same name which was issued by the U.S. Department of State between 1985 and 2003. Additional encyclopedic reference material has been developed by the editors including a Chronology of significant terrorist incidents from 1964-2005. The complete publication is also available in print format]
Sociology of terrorism (2004) [electronic]
[Review of the social origins and dynamics of terrorism. Published in volume 30 of the Annual Review of Sociology. Also available in print format]
Terror and violence : imagination and the unimaginable (2006) [print]
[Anthropological insights into the ways in which acts of terror impact on the lives of virtually everyone, as perpetrators, victims or witnesses]

Terrorism: a documentary and reference guide (2005) [print]
[A history & analysis of modern terrorism with an emphasis on the attacks on 9/11 & its aftermath]

Terrorism reader (2003) [print]
[An exploration of all aspects of terrorism illustrated by 12 case studies from four continents]

Terrorism 2006 [electronic]
[Full-text of a bibliography compiled by staff from the Air University Muir S. Fairchild Research Information Center]

Violence, terror and the crisis of the state (1994) [electronic]
[A review of significant developments in the ethnography of violence. Published in volume 23 of the Annual Review of Anthropology. Also available in print format]

Finding Books Using The Library Catalogue

Books can be found by searching the library catalogue. Keyword searching is probably the best way of identifying material, and your results will be maximised by using keyword searching techniques such as truncation and Boolean searching, and by incorporating subject headings into your search where appropriate. Here are some examples on how to construct searches:

Terrorism and Australia

"Al Qaida" or "Al Qaeda" [this covers the two different spellings]

Terrorism and (Television or Media)

"War on Terrorism"

Terror? and Southeast? and Asia

Finding Journal And Newspaper Articles Using Databases & Bibliographies

Journal articles can be found through databases listed in the Databases for Anthropology guide - Sociological Abstracts, Academic OneFile and Academic Search Premier are probably the best starting points.

In addition to the electronic databases, there are also web-based bibliographies & research guides many of which have links to full-text documents. The following are recommended:

Annotated bibliography of terrorism and counter-terrorism research (2004-2006)
[Combating Terrorism Center at West Point]

Global Terrorism Database
[US Department of Homeland Security]

Portals to the World: Terrorism and Terrorism & crime studies
[US Library of Congress sites]

Terrorism
[US Navy web site]

Perspectives on terrorism

[Online journal of the Terrorism Research Initiative. Includes article on jihadism and Al-Qaeda]

Terrorism and Homeland security documents available online
[Rand Corporation]

Terrorism research guide
[Western Libraries, Western Washington University]

You might also like to consult bibliographies in print format in the library for coverage of earlier material

Newspaper articles (Australian and international coverage) are available in full-text through Factiva or ELibrary

Web Resources

The following are starting points for resources on the Web:

American Security Project
[A non-profit, bipartisan public policy and research organization.
Several reports on jihadism can be found in publications]

danielpipes.org
[What is Jihad? Article by Daniel Pipes from New York Post. Also includes other articles
the author]

Last update: 18 June 2009 Helen Attar