Books by Jason Burke

“The book is about the links between Palestinian and Western European terrorism. So you get the Red Army Faction playing a role. But the real focus, I think, is on the various off-shoots of the PLO, like the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. It’s looking at these groups, trying to understand their motivations and what they were doing…There are some very interesting characters along the way. For instance, Carlos the Jackal, who became a gun for hire. He was from a rich Venezuelan background, a very left-wing family, but by the end, he’d been corrupted by the violence and was doing it for money. So the East Germans, the Bulgarians, and the like might have hired him to do freelance terrorism jobs. These terrorists were some kind of idealists, but there’s a story of corruption there as well, which was interesting. There’s a bit of nuance.” Read more...

The Best Nonfiction Books of 2025: The Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist

Robbie Millen, Journalist

“Burke weaves together the history of militancy in the twentieth century, the significance of 1979, and the roots of the current conflict in Syria and elsewhere.” Read more...

The best books on Refugees

David Miliband, Politician

“This is a very deeply reported book but I don’t agree with its analysis of Al-Qaeda’s structure. Burke sees Al-Qaeda as more of a disorganised movement, which grew up organically in Afghanistan. I think that that is incorrect.” Read more...

The best books on Osama bin Laden

Peter Bergen, Journalist