by Mike Davis

History of the car bomb traces the political development of this influential weapon of terror and resistance. Winner of the 2007 Lannan Literary Award for Non-Fiction.

In this brilliant and disturbing history, Mike Davis traces the car bomb's worldwide use and development, in the process exposing the role of state intelligence agencies—particularly those of the United States, Israel, India, and Pakistan—in globalizing urban terrorist techniques. Davis argues that it is the incessant impact of car bombs, rather than the more apocalyptic threats of nuclear or bio-terrorism, that is changing cities and urban lifestyle, as privileged centers of power increasingly surround themselves with 'rings of steel' against a weapon that nevertheless seems impossible to defeat.