The history of terrorism in New York does not begin with September 11th or the first World Trade Center bombing. What is known as terrorism — symbolic political violence — has been at the center of life in Gotham for a very long time. And during the “long 1960s” (the mid 1960s to mid 1970s), the city experienced a wave of terrorism that was unprecedented in many ways. Never before, and never since, have so many actors engaged in this act.

Scholarship on this period has largely focused on New Left radicals such as the Weather Underground. But in his new book, You Have Unleashed a Storm, David Viola finds that terrorism was just as likely to emanate from the right, and may have in fact originated there.

Terrorism and the response to it – most notably by the NYPD and the FBI – also coevolved. Actions prompted more aggressive investigations, which in turn drove actors further. Building on these “intelligence” operations, authorities brought to bear many of the practices that would soon land them in legal trouble during the Church Committee investigation and the “Handschu” case.

Ultimately, this history is both longer and more diverse than is commonly understood, even in scholarly history, and New York City lied at the center. Using new archival collections and declassified files, as well as preserved court records, Viola — an intelligence officer in the US Navy Reserves and Adjunct Professor at the Center on Terrorism at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice — offers a groundbreaking, illuminating account of this subject and era.