Editor's Introduction

This issue marks the fifteenth year of our journal's publication, and as we look back over the past decade and a half, we do so with satisfaction at having realized our original vision. The journal was conceived as a joint project with Professor Ann Larabee, and our shared perspective was to create a journal that, as the title itself suggests, is focused not on advocacy, but on the impartial study of radicalism across the political spectrum, understood as centered not on reform, but on those who seek to suddenly transform society through violent or nonviolent means. The wide range of articles and the many international scholars that have graced the pages of the journal over these years demonstrate that this vision has been brought into being.

Although I am continuing to serve as editor of JSR for the time being, I am being called in other directions for my work, and need to devote my time exclusively to several books that will require my undivided attention. If you are a faculty member at an institution that would support your work as an editor for our journal, and you are interested in doing so, please feel free to contact me and we can discuss in more detail what that might entail and what the time frame might be. I look forward to hearing from you.

This issue begins with Laura Greenwood's "Book-Anarchists on Bomb-Anarchists: Free Society, Diversity of (Textual) Tactics, and Anarchist Counternarratives of the McKinley Assassination," which looks closely at the history of anarchism and in particular at the divergent perspectives of "philosophical" and "revolutionary" anarchists, the latter being those who espoused violence means including assassination. We then move to Nathan Godfried's "Organic Intellectuals and Working-Class Organizing: The Case of Sarainne Loewe, 1920–38," a close study of a paradigmatic figure of the radical left in 1920s America. From Godfried's article we then turn back to the question of violence, in this case arguments concerning sabotage, with R. H. Lossin's "No Interests in Common: Sabotage as Structural Analysis." In this article she explores the I.W.W. and exhortations to damage equipment, mines, or other property because sabotage (the argument went) is an assertion of workers' property rights.

After these three historical studies, we then turn to an exploration of anarchist theory and practice in historical context by Davide Turcato, "Interpreting the World, Changing the World: The Anarchist View." In this article, Turcato argues that anarchism has developed and distinctive theoretical perspectives based in individualism and pluralism that represent a clearly articulated contrast to authoritarian Marxist theory and praxis. We conclude this issue's articles with "Challenging the Jihadi Narrative: Interviews of French Prisoners Held in Syria" by Angeliki Monnier and Annabelle Seoane, an analysis of the rhetorical strategies implicit in "radical" and "aradical" discourse. This article is the first in a series of occasional articles discussing different aspects of Islamic radicalism.

The issue concludes with six book reviews, again in this issue on a wide range of topics, including Josh Fattal on Libertarian Socialism, Ryan Wittingslow on Assassins Against the Old Order, Ea Nicole Madrigal and Brian Brutlag on Such a Pretty Girl, Hollie Fitzmaurice on Seeking Rights from the Left, Sean Cashbaugh on Autonomy, Refusal, and the Black Bloc, and Steve Nepa on Radicalism and Music. These are all quite interesting subjects, made more topical by contemporary and recent events in the United States and elsewhere. If you are interested in a book being reviewed by us, or in reviewing a book, please contact our associate editor, Morgan Shipley.

As you know, JSR seeks provide a forum for the scholarly and dispassionate analysis of radicalism of many kinds, and from many different perspectives. We continue to welcome a steady stream of excellent articles, and remain the only journal in the world that focuses on the full range of political, social, and religious forms of radicalism. We have some remarkable articles on a range of related themes, including anarchism, black bloc radicalism, radical environmentalism, and other forms of political and religious radicalism. We welcome your queries, submissions, and shared conversation...