Russell D. Buhite is professor of history and head of the History Department at the University of Tennessee.

• Chapter 1 Introduction: Terrorism and American Foreign RelationsChapter 2 The Barbary Pirates: Terrorist Tormentors of the Early RepublicChapter 3 A Question of Character: The Mailed Fist of the Nineteenth CenturyChapter 4 A Study in Contradition: Theodore Roosevelt's Responses to Hostage CrisesChapter 5 At Risk in War and Revolution: Bargaining with the Soviet UnionChapter 6 Trial in Mukden: Hostages of the Chinese CommunistsChapter 7 The Pueblo Crisis: Hostages of North KoreaChapter 8 Revolutionaries in Control: Hostages of IranChapter 9 Dealing with Brigands and Believers: An AppraisalChapter 10 Appendix: Major Hostage Incidents in U.S. History

This masterful history of hostage taking with Americans as victims raises the question of whether open societies, even with the highest technology, will ever be able to cope with this curse.