History of Suicide Bombing

Jeffrey Lewis, lecturer in international studies, is author of the new book The Business of Martyrdom: A History of Suicide Bombing (Naval Institute Press, 2012), the only comprehensive history available of suicide bombing from its origins in Imperial Russia to the current day.

The Business of Martyrdom examines the bombers, their societies, and the organizations that train and sponsor them. Lewis draws on the history and philosophy of technology in order to explain the evolution and diffusion of suicide bombing over time and from region to region.

Lewis earned his PhD from Ohio State in 2002 and was the recipient of a Fulbright Hays Grant for doctoral research and a guest scholar of Germany's Max Planck Society for the Advancement of the Sciences. In 2007 he received a postdoctoral research fellowship from the START Center (Studies on Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism) at the University of Maryland.

For more on the book, go to Ohio State research communications http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/suicidebomb.htm