Death to Order: A Modern History of Assassination

by Simon Ball

A deeply researched history of assassination in the modern world, from Franz Ferdinand to Osama bin Laden
Archduke Franz Ferdinand, Leon Trotsky, Reinhard Heydrich, Mahatma Gandhi, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Indira Gandhi, Benazir Bhutto, Osama bin Laden, Qasem Soleimani: assassination--the murder of a specific individual by an organised conspiracy in pursuit of political ends--has rarely failed to grip the imagination.

In this incisive new history, Simon Ball shows how targeted political murder has become a tool of democratic states but also a key strategy of those who wish to topple them. Ball introduces us to the techniques of assassination and those who wield them, as well as the security regimes that have developed to prevent this violent practice. From the First World War and the age of empire to terrorism and the development of pilotless drones, Death to Order places assassination at the heart of modern political history--and shows how it continues to impact our world.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics

464 pages, Hardcover

First published August 26, 2025

Reviews

[Paul O'Donnell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Comprehensive but dry. The book does what it claims to do but has very little flavor for such an interesting premise.

[William · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full disclosure- the things that drew me to this book - learning more about the individual cases, is not something the author was interested in. Therefore, I think misunderstood the aim of the book, which apparently seems to be about the geopolitics of assassination and killings as foreign and domestic policy. People who are interested in those things will likely enjoy this.

[Francisco Valdes]

A very detail study on assassinations its perpetrators, tools, methods and consequences.
Many of the killings described I was not aware of their contexts.
Surprising and informative.