THE KILLING GAME

This book examines the lure of this radical Islamist movement: its religious beliefs, sophisticated propaganda, and vast social media networks. ISIS is now a go-to cause for alienated young people in the Islamic World and the West. Does it offer answers to troubled young people? Are ISIS's crimes -- slavery, murder, rape, repression, and the destruction of heritage sites -- an attraction in and of themselves? What do we do about the people who take up ISIS's cause but stay in their home country? What do we do with the ISIS recruits who come home?

From the irresistible lure of Marxist-Leninism of the 1930s through the ‘60s and ‘70s, and including the appeal of Nazism to young Germans in the 1930s, this book also investigates what it is that draws young people to join and fight for causes as different as the Spanish Civil War of the 1930s and the Red Brigades of the 1970s, but with an emphasis on the attraction of ISIS and radical Islam in our own time.

MARK BOURRIE is quickly emerging as Canada's leading expert and author on propaganda and censorship. He is also an award-winning writer and a respected military historian with academic qualifications that give heft to his views. He holds a PhD in History, has been a consultant to the Canadian War Museum on propaganda and war coverage, and has written two very well received books on information control: The Fog of War: Censorship of Canada's Media in World War Two and Kill the Messengers: Stephen Harper's Assault on Your Right to Know.