Fanaticism and Conflict in the Modern Age

by Matthew Hughes (Editor)

What is fanaticism? Is the term at all useful? After all, one person's fanatic is another's freedom fighter. This new book probves these key questions of the twenty first century. It details how throughout history there have been fanatics eager to pursue their religious, political or personal agendas. Fanaticism has fuelled many of the conflicts of the twentieth century, in particular the theatres of combat of the Second World War. More recently, religious fanaticism has bedevilled affairs in the Middle East and elsewhere. Is fanaticism becoming more fanatical in the new millennium? As the events of 11 September 2001 prove, fanaticism, however it is defined, continues to dominate international affairs. The volume covers the nature and philosophy of fanaticism, the connection between political ideology and fanaticism, and the relationship between fanaticism and war in the contemporary era. To illustrate these themes, the volume presents a broad range of case studies including the Dervishes in the Sudan in the 1890s, fanaticism in the context of the Pacific war, 1937-45, the 12th SS Hitler Jugend Division in action in Normandy in 1944, the German army on the Eastern Front, and terrorism and guerrilla war after 1945.

Genres: Political Science

208 pages, Hardcover

First published November 24, 2004

About the author

Dr Matthew Hughes is Professor of Military History at Brunel University London, in England.

Hughes studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies and at the London School of Economics. He completed his ESRC-funded PhD in 1995 under the supervision of Professors Brian Bond and Brian Holden Reid in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London on the strategy surrounding the British campaign in Palestine in the First World War in Palestine. He has a PGCE in History from Cardiff University. After working as an intern with the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Professor Hughes lectured at the universities of Northampton and Salford before coming to Brunel University in 2005. Professor Hughes has been a British Academy funded visiting fellow at the American University in Cairo, the American University in Beirut, and at Tel Aviv University. He spent two years as the Marine Corps University Foundation-funded Maj-Gen Matthew C. Horner Distinguished Chair in Military Theory at the US Marine Corps University, Quantico, 2008-10. His latest monograph on British counter-insurgency in Palestine in the 1930s entitled Britain's Pacification of Palestine: the British Army, the Colonial State, and the Arab Revolt, 1936-1939 (2019) was published with Cambridge University Press. He was the editor of the Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research (2004-8). He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a former Chair of Council of the Army Records Society (2014-18), and is a judge for the Society for Army Historical Research's annual Templer Medal prize (2003-4, 2007-8, 2018-). He sits on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Military History and Middle Eastern Studies and is a judge for the latter's annual Elie Kedourie prize. He is currently an external examiner for the Higher Diploma awarded by Maynooth University to the Junior Command and Staff Course with the Military College, Irish Defence Forces, and a Visiting Lecturer and examiner at the University of Buckingham.