The long history of a disturbingly modern death cult

According to Iain Overton’s intelligent and sobering survey of suicide bombing, it seems tailor-made for the 21st century

Rescue workers gather around a victim in Paris after several dozen people were killed in a series of attacks in 2015AP

Current affairs: The Price of Paradise: How the Suicide Bomber Shaped the Modern Age, By Iain Overton, Quercus, €17.25

Ignaty Grinivetsky hated the Tsar of Russia so much that he was prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice. “Alexander II must die,” the 25-year-old revolutionary wrote in a letter to posterity on March 12, 1881. “I shall not see our victory, I shall not live one day, one hour in the bright season of ...