Book review: Simon Cottee, ISIS and the Pornography of Violence
| Date | 01 February 2021 |
| DOI | 10.1177/1362480620902586 |
| Author | Imogen Richards |
| Published date | 01 February 2021 |
| Subject Matter | Book reviews |
902586TCR0010.1177/1362480620902586Theoretical CriminologyBook review
book-review2020
Theoretical Criminology
2021, Vol. 25(1) 1 –3
Book review
© The Author(s) 2020
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https://doi.org/10.1177/1362480620902586
DOI: 10.1177/1362480620902586
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Simon Cottee, ISIS and the Pornography of Violence, Anthem Press: London, 2019; 186
pp.: 9781783089680, £22.95 (pbk)
Reviewed by: Imogen Richards, Deakin University, Australia
ISIS and the Pornography of Violence is an anthology of 39 of Cottee’s news media articles
analysing the (neo-)jihadist group, ‘Islamic State’ (IS), or ‘Islamic State in Iraq and
al-Sham’ (ISIS). The articles were published between 2014 and 2018, from IS’s rise to
prevalence with its announcement of the so-called Caliphate in 2014 to its more recent loss
of territory in 2017–2018. The book’s three thematic sections are ‘ISIS and the theatre of
horror’ (pp. 1–37), ‘The meaning and appeal of jihadist violence’ (pp. 39–91) and ‘How not
to think about ISIS’ (pp. 93–128). Sub-themes across the sections are theological aspects of
IS as a ‘revolutionary political movement’, critique of the sometimes-alleged ‘vulnerabil-
ity’ of IS recruits and emphasis on the limitations of structuralist and pathologizing expla-
nations of IS terrorism (see ‘Preface’, p. x). Cottee’s articles from The Atlantic, The
Jerusalem Post, The Nation and elsewhere emphasize the culturalist, subterranean aspects
of IS, with attention to its propagandized manifestations in mainly western settings.
Cottee’s focus in the articles also extends to social psychological drivers of IS violence,
explained via the analogical comparison of IS propaganda with western pornography indus-
tries. The pornography–IS comparison pertains, first, to the extreme violence and ‘sadism’
extant in IS videos, culminating in the ‘money shot’ of IS executions (pp. 1, 2). Cottee oth-
erwise argues that IS’s acts of brutal...
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