Tom Vague

Tom Vague's take on the Red Army Faction story is a good introduction to the cultural context surrounding these complicated events. Much of Vague's text is copied verbatim from Stefan Aust's more comprehensive Baader-Meinhof: The Inside Story of the R.A.F., but on the other hand, Vague does broaden his scope beyond what Aust has to offer by incorporating more information about related radical groups in West Germany, such as the June 2nd Movement and the Socialist Patients' Collective (SPK). In addition, Vague's book includes a useful postscript on the wider phenomenon of "Euroterrorism" from the late 1970's through the early 1990's, which provides a good overview of how the RAF fit into the larger context of the radical politics of their time.… (mer)