Looking beyond waves and datasets: “cultures of terrorism” and the future of history in terrorism studies

Abstract

Frequent observations about the lack of historical work in terrorism studies pose questions about history’s place–and its relevance even–in the field. Why have historians largely failed to engage with terrorism studies? And why have terrorism studies scholars generally failed to engage with history? This article suggests that the dominance of social scientific research methods, the quest for “rules” and models, and the prizing of quantitative data in terrorism studies, combined with historians’ own reluctance to foreground the contemporary relevance of their work, have led to the underrepresentation of history. It calls on historians to demonstrate the value of qualitative research methods to notions of contemporary terrorist violence using a “cultures of terrorism” approach in the context of Critical Terrorism Studies.