Blamed, at first, by the Spanish government for the recent Madrid train bombings, ETA (Euzkadi ta Askatasuna), the Basque nationalist organization, has been perhaps the most violent insurgent group on the European continent. Yet little is known about it outside of Spain. This book, now back in print, offers a full analytical study of ETA.
Good research on a hard topic, especially because we are talking here about very secretive, clandestine organizations. A bit outdated (it’s a book published in 1984) since it covers the groups initial steps until 1980. A lot happened after that and several important leaders had not even yet surfaced when the book was written. Also, the political and military trajectory of the group after the end of Francoism (their most radical and violent period) is just lightly touched. In any case it covers with good detail the group’s origins, the ideological struggles during the 60s and 70s and its consolidation as a single basque revolutionary entity.