This is an account of the nature and parabola of left-wing political violence that began in Italy in the late 1960s. It covers not only the patterns of recruitment, organization and activity among armed groups, but also the responses elicited from opponents in various contexts.

Italian "Terrorism" as translation; the trajectory of armed struggle; violence in a local context - the factory; maintaining the political frontier; the construction of judicial accounts; the staging of political trials; "Cui prodest".