Synopses & Reviews
Acclaimed
New York Times journalist and author Chris Hedges offers a critical -- and fascinating -- lesson in the dangerous realities of our age: a stark look at the effects of war on combatants. Utterly lacking in rhetoric or dogma, this manual relies instead on bare fact, frank description, and a spare question-and-answer format. Hedges allows U.S. military documentation of the brutalizing physical and psychological consequences of combat to speak for itself.
Hedges poses dozens of questions that young soldiers might ask about combat, and then answers them by quoting from medical and psychological studies.
What are my chances of being wounded or killed if we go to war?
What does it feel like to get shot?
What do artillery shells do to you?
What is the most painful way to get wounded?
Will I be afraid?
What could happen to me in a nuclear attack?
What does it feel like to kill someone?
Can I withstand torture?
What are the long-term consequences of combat stress?
What will happen to my body after I die?
This profound and devastating portrayal of the horrors to which we subject our armed forces stands as a ringing indictment of the glorification of war and the concealment of its barbarity.
Review
"Neither jingoistic nor pacifist, the book is about the moral authority of information, as it applies to the present and future nature of war." The New York Times
Synopsis
Acclaimed
New York Times journalist and author Chris Hedges offers a critical and fascinating lesson in the dangerous realities of our age: a stark look at the effects of war on combatants. Utterly lacking in rhetoric or dogma, this manual relies instead on bare fact, frank description, and a spare question-and-answer format. Hedges allows U.S. military documentation of the brutalizing physical and psychological consequences of combat to speak for itself.
Hedges poses dozens of questions that young soldiers might ask about combat, and then answers them by quoting from medical and psychological studies.
What are my chances of being wounded or killed if we go to war?
What does it feel like to get shot?
What do artillery shells do to you?
What is the most painful way to get wounded?
Will I be afraid?
What could happen to me in a nuclear attack?
What does it feel like to kill someone?
Can I withstand torture?
What are the long-term consequences of combat stress?
What will happen to my body after I die?
This profound and devastating portrayal of the horrors to which we subject our armed forces stands as a ringing indictment of the glorification of war and the concealment of its barbarity.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 147-162) and index.
About the Author
andlt;bandgt;Chris Hedgesandlt;/bandgt; was a foreign correspondent for nearly two decades for andlt;Iandgt;The New andlt;BRandgt;York Timesandlt;/iandgt;, andlt;Iandgt;The Dallas Morning Newsandlt;/iandgt;, andlt;Iandgt;The Christian Science andlt;BRandgt;Monitorandlt;/iandgt; and National Public Radio. He was a member of the team that won the andlt;BRandgt;2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for andlt;Iandgt;The New York Timesandlt;/iandgt; andlt;BRandgt;coverage of global terrorism, and he received the 2002 Amnesty International andlt;BRandgt;Global Award for Human Rights Journalism. Hedges is the author of the bestseller andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Iandgt;American Fascistsandlt;/iandgt; and National Book Critics Circle finalist for andlt;Iandgt;War Is andlt;BRandgt;a Force That Gives Us Meaningandlt;/iandgt;. He is a Senior Fellow at The Nation Institute andlt;BRandgt;and a Lannan Literary Fellow and has taught at Columbia University, New York andlt;BRandgt;University and Princeton University.