• An up-to-date analysis: exposing the real nature of fundamentalism right up to and beyond the London bombings of the 7th July 2005
• Charts the development of fundamentalist movements from 1920s America to today's terrorist threats
• Investigates the many different forms of fundamentalist belief, both religious and secular, and the political and terrorist activities that often result
• Takes a critical view of the burgeoning literature on modern religious fundamentalism
• Malise Ruthven is a leading commentator on Islam
• Uses a broad range of examples: USA, Middle East, Ireland, SE Asia, Africa, Germany

    
Malise Ruthven tackles the polemic and stereotypes surrounding this complex phenomenon - one that eludes sim today, a conclusion impossible to ignore since the events in New York on September 11 2001. But what does 'fundamentalism' really mean? 
  
Since it was coined by American Protestant evangelicals in the 1920s, the use of the term 'fundamentalist' has expanded to include a diverse range of radical conservatives and ideological purists, not all religious. Fundamentalism could now mean both militant Israeli settlers as well as the Islamist radicals who oppose them, it can mean Christians, Hindus, animal liberationists, and even Buddhist nationalists. Ruthven investigates fundamentalism's historical, social, religious, political, and ideological roots, and tackles the polemic and stereotypes surrounding this complex phenomenon - one that eludes simple definition, yet urgently needs to be understood.