Assassins' Deeds: A History of Assassination from Ancient Egypt to the Present Day

by John Withington

Overview

Assassins have been killing the powerful and famous for at least three thousand years. Personal ambition, revenge, and anger have encouraged many to violent deeds, like the Turkish sultan who had nineteen of his brothers strangled or the bodyguards who murdered a dozen Roman emperors. More recently have come new motives like religious and political fanaticism, revolution and liberation, with governments also getting in on the act, while many victims seem to have been surprisingly careless: Abraham Lincoln was killed after letting his bodyguard go for a drink. So, do assassinations work? Drawing on anecdote, historical evidence, and statistical analysis, Assassins’ Deeds delves into some of history’s most notorious acts, unveiling an intriguing cast of characters, ingenious methods of killing, and many unintended consequences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781789143515
Publisher:	Reaktion Books, Limited
Publication date:	12/13/2020
Edition description:	New edition
Pages:	368
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

John Withington is an award-winning television journalist, based in London, whose previous books include Secrets of the Centenarians, also published by Reaktion Books.

Table of Contents

Prologue 7

1 The Ancient World 13

2 The Roman Empire and the Dark Ages 41

3 The Age of Chivalry 72

4 The Wars of Religion 102

5 The Age of Revolution 138

6 The Modern Age: World Wars and Terrorism 205

7 The Ones That Got Away 290

Select Bibliography 325

Photo Acknowledgements 335

Index 337

Editorial Reviews

Death has long stalked the halls of power, and this overview of the murders of the famous and important stretches back to the ancient world. Exploring what such killings tell us about the society and politics of each era, it offers a litany of humanity's darker sides—ambition, greed, and lust for control. Studded with necessarily grisly case studies, it's leavened by a final section on those who got away.

BBC History Magazine

"As Withington observes in Assassins’ Deeds, his detail-rich study of the form from ancient times to the present, more often than not the best-laid plans of would-be history-changers go unrealized, as the new tends to replicate the old and the iron law of unintended consequences does its grim work... Impressively researched and engagingly narrated, Assassins’ Deeds will likely stand as the definitive treatment of its subject for years to come."

Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books

History is studded with infamous moments in which the rich and powerful met untimely ends—and this book charts the methods and motivations of those who have meted them out. It's arranged chronologically, taking in everything from the Ides of March, the day on which Roman dictator Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, right through to the horrors of modern terrorism.

History Revealed

Good King Wenceslaus looked out, the carol states, on the Feast of Stephen. For the noble name-checked in the song, taking up an invitation to a Saints Day banquet from his brother did not end well. The Bohemian noble was brutally assassinated, hacked to pieces by his sibling’s henchmen after dinner. Wenceslaus’s story, along with more than 300 others, are retold by author Withington in a comprehensive, chronological history of this particular form of murder.

Camden New Journal

In this fast-paced survey, Withington catalogs recorded assassinations from ancient times to the present day. . . . Withington meticulously describes the background, motivation, and method of each killing, which keeps the book interesting. He raises provocative questions about whether assassinations make much of a political difference and about the morality of eliminating leaders as an alternative to wider, bloodier conflicts.

Foreign Affairs - Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman

"Like Shakespeare himself, Assassins’ Deeds offers us a stage memorably strewn with the most distinguished of corpses. ‘Bloody instructions’ (as Macbeth called them) are certainly to be found here in abundance. But there are also wise words about how often incompetence and unintended consequences derail the best laid plans. Assassination, Withington instructs us in entertaining style, is no exact science. A messy tale: and a haunting one."

Tim Wilson