Lives at Risk: Hostages and Victims in American Foreign Policy

Lives at Risk: Hostages and Victims in American Foreign Policy is the first book that provides the historical content needed to understand terrorism and America's responses to terrorist acts. Historian Russell D. Buhite here examines key instances of hostage-taking throughout U.S. history, from the late eighteenth century to the 1980s, and shows how our policies have evolved and how previous experiences can help us deal with terrorist threats today. Professor Buhite begins this study with a discussion of the special problems that the United States has faced in dealing with hostage crises. The subsequent chapters then proceed chronologically through U.S. history, narrating major hostage incidents and tracing changes in Washington's stance toward terrorists. Lives at Risk will appeal to teachers of courses in foreign policy, diplomatic history, general history, and political science.

Russell D. Buhite is professor of history and head of the History Department at the University of Tennessee.