Assassinations that Shaped the Twentieth Century

Written by Phil Carradice
Review by David Northover

Asked to name the victim of a 20^th-century assassination, most people would probably say JFK, President Kennedy of the United States. Other names which might come up are Martin Luther King or Archduke Franz Ferdinand. Further down the list might come John Lennon, Mahatma Gandhi or Indira Gandhi. But who now remembers Rajiv Gandhi, Patrice Lumumba or Ross McWhirter? If the victims fade from the memory, the perpetrators fare even worse. We all remember Lee Harvey Oswald and some, maybe, the Serbian student Princip who shot the Archduke, a factor in starting World War I. But will struggle to name any others.

Phil Carradice has written of these and many more. For most of the victims he has named the assassin or at least the organisation responsible. He starts with a short chapter on assassination generally, then the period up to and including World War I, and then proceeds decade by decade, finishing with a chapter on the survivors of assassination attempts. These are not in-depth studies of the individuals involved; full length biographies are available for many of them, whole libraries in some cases. But he gives a brief resumé of each life and events up to and immediately following the death. It is well researched and very readable.

Along the way there are snippets of interesting information. The assassination of Pat Garrett and the deaths of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid saw the end of the old Wild West gunfighters. There are also lives of people who we think we know but actually don’t: Mata Hari or Emiliano Zapata, for instance.

This is a fascinating book and will appeal to anyone interested in 20^th-century history or the operations of assassins.