This article argues that scholars of historical terrorism should abandon the practice of defining the phenomenon in favour of prioritising past understandings of terrorist violence. Research into the history of terrorism often uses a definition informed by contemporary concerns to reveal previous incidents and outbreaks of terrorism. This approach speaks more to the concerns of the present than those of the past. We must refocus our attention on how people in history understood terrorism and to whom and to what they applied the term. This approach can open avenues of investigation into neglected or sensitive subjects, with the example of the violence of the French Resistance explored here. Historians have rejected the use of the term “terrorism” to describe resistance action, preferring instead to use military or paramilitary terminology. However, resistance violence was understood in several ways, and the resisters' own rejection of the terrorist label was not total.

中文翻译：

---

我们是恐怖分子吗？历史，恐怖主义和法国抵抗运动

本文认为，历史恐怖主义学者应放弃定义现象的做法，而应优先考虑过去对恐怖主义暴力的理解。对恐怖主义历史的研究经常使用当代关注的信息作为定义，以揭示恐怖主义的先前事件和爆发。这种方法比过去更能说明当前的关切。我们必须将注意力重新集中在历史上的人们如何理解恐怖主义以及对这个术语适用于谁和适用于谁。这种方法可以为被忽视或敏感的对象开辟调查途径，这里以法国抵抗运动的暴力事件为例。历史学家拒绝使用“恐怖主义”一词来形容抵抗行动，而是倾向于使用军事或准军事术语。然而，