New Books in Military History · Marshall Poe

Jason Burke, "The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s" (Knopf, 2026)

·53 min·4 clips
Jason Burke discovered that key moments in the 1972 Munich Olympics attack, widely believed to have happened, never actually occurred.
Jason Burke discusses his book 'The Revolutionists,' exploring the rise of international terrorism in the 1970s, including left-wing and Islamist extremism. He shares insights from archival research and interviews with militants, revealing overlooked Cold War dynamics and challenging popular myths about iconic terrorist figures.

As heard by us

A steady look at hijacking, militancy, and how terrorism's meaning changed in the 1970s.

Jason Burke's discussion of The Revolutionists is steady and clear-eyed. It traces how extremist hijackings helped shape the 1970s, then shows how the conflict changed once later violence in Lebanon raised the stakes.

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Why you'd press play

You want the 1970s hijacking era explained as politics, spectacle, and escalation, not nostalgia.

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