** SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 2025 **
** A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, GUARDIAN, FINANCIAL TIMES, ECONOMIST, PROSPECT AND BBC HISTORY**

A thrilling and unprecedented account of the radicalism and political extremism that gripped the 1970s – a seismic decade that transformed the modern world.

'A fabulously gripping read' DOMINIC SANDBROOK, The Times Books of the Year

'Brilliant ... An astonishing window not just into the origins of modern terrorism but also into our own age' RORY STEWART

‘Extraordinary … told with cool authority and a novelist's eye for detail' RORY CARROLL, author of Killing Thatcher

In the 1970s, a network of extremists terrorised the West with intricately planned plane hijackings and hostage-takings. Among them were the glamorous Leila Khaled, hard-drinking Carlos the Jackal, and radical leftists of the Baader-Meinhof Gang. United by their hatred of Israel, capitalism and ‘Western imperialism’, they unleashed a series of audacious attacks that brought governments to their knees and glued the world to their tv screens.

Drawing on decades of research, recently declassified government files, secret documents, and first-hand interviews with hijackers, spies, witnesses and victims, Jason Burke takes us inside these often-deadly operations. Through the perpetrators’ eyes – and of the unrelenting agents who hunted them down – he uncovers a dark, complex world of loyalty, betrayal and commitment to change at any cost.

Pitching us into these tumultuous times, The Revolutionists reveals how a campaign led by secular leftist revolutionaries gave way to a far more lethal movement of conservative religious fanaticism that would dominate the decades to come. It is impossible to understand the world today without reading this book.

'A book that historians will be profiting from for many decades to come' TOM HOLLAND

‘As compelling as the best of spy thrillers’ FERGAL KEANE, BBC Correspondent and author of The Madness

'Riveting' LINDSEY HILSUM, International Editor, Channel 4 News

Prizes

Long-listed for Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction 2025 (UK)

Brilliant, beautifully researched, observed and written. An astonishing window not just into the origins of modern terrorism but also into our own age -- Rory Stewart, author of Politics on the Edge
A kaleidoscopic sweep through an extraordinary era told with cool authority and a novelist's eye for detail. Burke is a master in the field -- Rory Carroll, author of Killing Thatcher
If journalism is the first draft of history, then this is its second draft. A book that historians will be consulting and profiting from for many decades to come -- Tom Holland, author of Rubicon and host of The Rest Is History
A dazzling exploration of the radical politics of the 1970s… a fabulously gripping read * The Times, *Books of the Year* *
Superb and monumental * Spectator *
Riveting … [The Revolutionists] is an absorbing history of terrorism in Europe and the Middle East … A deeply researched, ambitious and elegantly written book * Observer *
[A] huge, roving and painstakingly researched account of the rise of modern terrorism * Financial Times *
As irresistible and unputdownable as it is astonishing and relevant -- Simon Sebag Montefiore * The Times, *Book of the Week* *
Magisterial … The Revolutionists [is] such an engaging, intelligible guide through a dense geopolitical period * New Statesman *
A detailed and sweeping account of the origins of modern international terrorism * Financial Times Best Books of 2025 *

JASON BURKE, the International Security correspondent for the Guardian, has been a foreign correspondent for almost 30 years, reporting from the Middle East, South Asia, Europe and Africa. He is one of the foremost writers on terrorism and the author of four critically acclaimed books: The New Threat from Islamic Militancy, shortlisted for the Orwell Prize; The 9/11 Wars, ‘the best overview of the 9/11 decade in print’ (The Economist); the ground-breaking Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam and On the Road to Kandahar: Travels through Conflict in the Islamic World. He lives near London.