Tag Archives: antonia fraser

A lesson from history in tackling terrorism

By Mark Pack | Thu 25th November 2010 - 8:54 am

Antonia Fraser’s lively and authoritative history The Gunpowder Plot: Terror & Faith in 1605 not only provides an entertaining account of the events that have turned November 5th into an annual fireworks celebration but also throws a light on how to tackle terrorism. For the early seventeenth century world which spawned Guy Fawkes, Robert Catesby and an attempt to blow up Parliament was one in which there were widespread fears of plots and violence, motivated by differing religious views that led some (but not all) to see the future as inevitably bringing a violent confrontation for religious supremacy. Fears of terrorist conspiracy by an extremist minority in a religion that nominally owned obedience to an overseas religious figure all sounds rather contemporary.