[ecrea] New Book: Homegrown: Identity and Difference in the American War on Terror

New book

Piotr M Szpunar

Homegrown: Identity and Difference in the American War on Terror (NYU 
Press)*
*
“You are either with us, or against us” is the refrain that captures the 
spirit of the global war on terror. Images of the “them” implied in this 
war cry—distinct foreign “others”—inundate Americans on hit television 
shows, Hollywood blockbusters, and nightly news. However, in this book, 
Piotr Szpunar tells the story of a fuzzier image: the homegrown 
terrorist, a foe that blends into the crowd, who Americans are told 
looks, talks, and acts “like us.” An insightful study of how identity is 
mobilized in and for war in the face of homegrown terrorism.

Back Flap

“This illuminating book will change the way we think about the discourse 
around terrorists and terrorism.” –John M. Sloop, Vanderbilt University

“Teasing out who gets labeled a terrorist in the post-9/11 environment, 
Szpunar’s compelling concept of the double provides a useful framework 
to think with and is certain to have an impact on the field.” –Evelyn 
Alsultany, author of Arabs and Muslims in the Media: Race and 
Representation after 9/11

https://nyupress.org/books/9781479841905/

Homegrown delves into the dynamics of domestic counterterrorism, 
revealing the complications that arise when the terrorist threat 
involves Americans, both residents and citizens, who have taken up arms 
against their own country. Szpunar examines the ways in which identities 
are blurred in the war on terror, amid debates concerning who is “the 
real terrorist.” He considers cases ranging from the white supremacist 
Sikh Temple shooter,,to the Newburgh Four, ex-convicts caught up in an 
FBI informant-led plot to bomb synagogues, to ecoterrorists, to the 
Tsarnaev brothers responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing.

Drawing on popular media coverage, court documents, as well as 
“terrorist”-produced media, Szpunar poses new questions about the 
strategic deployment of identity in times of conflict. The book argues 
that homegrown terrorism challenges our long held understandings of how 
identity and difference play out in war—beyond “us versus them”—and, 
more importantly, that the way in which it is conceptualized and 
combatted has real consequences for social, cultural, and political 
notions of citizenship and belonging. The first critical examination of 
homegrown terrorism, this book will make you question how we make sense 
of the actions of ourselves and others in global war, and the figures 
that fall in between.


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