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Scheming and slaughter
BBC History Magazine
|July 2021
NIGEL JONES appraises an extensive survey of assassinations throughout history, from the blood-soaked stabbings of ancient Rome to the drone strikes of modern warfare
Considering its frequency, assassination – the murder mainly of rulers and politicians – has not attracted much attention from serious historians, so it is refreshing to see that Professor Michael Burleigh has devoted a thoughtful and eminently readable book to the subject.
It is often said that assassination changes nothing, but that is clearly untrue. The killing of Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand triggered events that led to the First World War, and millions of lives could have been saved if the bombs set by either Georg Elser or Claus von Stauffenberg had succeeded in killing Hitler.
This story is from the July 2021 edition of BBC History Magazine.
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