Shell Shocked

In this sophisticated sociological analysis of the social response to terrorist attacks, Truc incisively dissects personal and collective reactions to the carnage orchestrated by those professing to be Muslims which have afflicted Western Europe and the US. Emanating from an impressive French doctoral thesis, and built upon analysis of nearly 60,000 messages penned in response to a 2004 terrorist attack in Madrid, the author’s findings are substantiated by the inclusion of additional post-attack condolence messages derived from similar atrocities in London and New York. This book eruditely detects how the social, political and media milieus have fashioned individual and collective responses. The messages displayed express sympathy to the victims, collective grief, and hope for a better world. The author compiles a comprehensive picture of diverse components that filter into how individuals and society process the aftermath of an attack, both in terms of the immediacy of its occurrence and the reflective period that follows, and considers why certain attacks stir the national psyche while others elicit a more muted response. Melded within this potent mix is an unsettling awareness of the difficulties social scientists experience when attempting to uphold objectivity in emotive situations that evoke heightened reactions, fear and anxiety. Maintaining objectivity under such conditions can be suspiciously misconstrued as being detached, remote, aloof and oddly clinical.