La Undecima Plaga

This work reminds us of the power that some people have to modify the history. The violent death of political, religious or social leaders triggers a radical change in the political, social and cultural landscape of a nation, or even the whole world. These crimes remind us not only of the fragility of peace and democracy, but also that history is by no means a deterministic process, subject to contingency and chance. If Caesar had not been assassinated, the Republic might have continued to exist longer and, who knows, the Roman Empire might never have emerged. Would the civil rights movement have been the same without the assassination of Martin Luther King? Would the First World War have been avoided without the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand? What would the state of Israel be like today without the shooting of Yitzhak Rabin by a Jewish extremist? Pedro Gargantilla invites us to reflect on the randomness of historical changes thanks to an entertaining and rigorous analysis of the key issues surrounding the death of more than thirty icons of the past.