Slate.com
Hedges' account of the horrors of war follows a confession of rare and frightening honesty.
Molly Ivins
I highly recommend Chris Hedges' splendid little book...His understanding is profound and was earned on the ground.
Jonathan Power
If...I thought Bush and Blair would give it time I would happily send them a copy to read.
New York Times Book Review
A brilliant, thoughtful, timely and unsettling book...it will rattle jingoists, pacifists, moralists, nihilists, politicians and professional soldiers equally...
Salon.com
As the 'war on terror' continues on its...potentially catastrophic course, America would do well to heed Hedges'...warning.
Publishers Weekly
"The communal march against an enemy generates a warm, unfamiliar bond with our neighbors, our community, our nation, wiping out unsettling undercurrents of alienation and dislocation," writes Chris Hedges, a foreign correspondent for the New York Times. In War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, Hedges draws on his experiences covering conflicts in Bosnia, El Salvador and Israel as well as works of literature from the Iliad to Hannah Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism to look at what makes war so intoxicating for soldiers, politicians and ordinary citizens. He discusses outbreaks of nationalism, the wartime silencing of intellectuals and artists, the ways in which even a supposedly skeptical press glorifies the battlefield and other universal features of war, arguing not for pacifism but for responsibility and humility on the part of those who wage war. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Foreign Affairs
This is an angry, articulate book β an act of therapy summed up by its ironic title. Hedges is an experienced war correspondent, but one unusually steeped in the scriptures, classics, and Shakespeare, struggling to make sense of the terrible things he has witnessed while covering conflicts in the Balkans, Africa, and the Middle East. Addressing his own inner urge to return to such scenes, he describes with vivid poignancy the brutalizing impact of war and the contrast between its noble claims and the misery it leaves in its wake. Hedges only occasionally discusses wars that involve regular forces, such as the Persian Gulf War, and he tends to concentrate on those (more common) post-Cold War conflicts driven by local passions, with close interaction between militias and their largely civilian victims and the media in close attendance. Hedges' thoughts on why wars start are at best sketchy, but his explorations of what happens when they do make this book a compelling read and a valuable counterweight to the more antiseptic discussions common among strategic analysts.
Library Journal
This moving book examines the continuing appeal of war to the human psyche. Veteran New York Times correspondent Hedges argues that, to many people, war provides a purpose for living; it seems to allow the individual to rise above regular life and perhaps participate in a noble cause. Having identified this myth, Hedges then explodes it by showing the brutality of modern war, using examples taken from his own experiences as a war correspondent in Latin America, the Middle East, and the Balkans. These examples highlight the devastating effects of war on life, community, and culture and its corruption of business and government. Hedges is not a pacifist, acknowledging that people need to battle evil, but he thoughtfully cautions us against accepting the accompanying myths of war. This should be required reading in this post-9/11 world as we debate the possibility of war with Iraq. For all libraries.-Stephen L. Hupp, West Virginia Univ. Lib., Parkersburg Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Booknews
Hedges, a long-time foreign correspondent for , draws on his own experiences in Latin America, Bosnia, and elsewhere; treatments of war in literature; and historical events to examine the way human beings experience war and to suggest that war gives rise to dangerous myths of the nobility of the cause. He argues that there are very few people who are not susceptible to the allure of war, but that, in the end, war becomes a contest between and , in which comes out on top all too often. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
From the Publisher
"Bitterly poetic and ruthlessly philosophicalΒ
. A powerful message to people contemplating the escalation of the 'war against terrorism.'" β-Los Angeles Times
