The lack of theoretical thinking on the concept of terrorism in political history in Quebec, other than in its general meaning, contrasts with the exponential increase in research on terrorism. The notion is approached as an epiphenomenon or a manifestation of the underlying social, political and cultural factors that have shaken Quebec in the last sixty years. Particularly, the FLQ episode, when it is put into a narrative, seems more eventful and biographical then “analytical.” It has not been accompanied to this day by a systematic process of theoretical appropriation. My objective is to invite political historians to reflect on the explanatory potential that lies in the operationalization of the notion of terrorism in the context of their research on social and political violence in Quebec during the 1960s and 1970s.