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| Original Title: | War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning |
| ISBN: | 1400034639 (ISBN13: 9781400034635) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Literary Awards: | National Book Critics Circle Award Nominee for General Nonfiction (2002) |
Chris Hedges
Paperback | Pages: 224 pages Rating: 4.15 | 4937 Users | 559 Reviews
Description Toward Books War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
As a veteran war correspondent, Chris Hedges has survived ambushes in Central America, imprisonment in Sudan, and a beating by Saudi military police. He has seen children murdered for sport in Gaza and petty thugs elevated into war heroes in the Balkans. Hedges, who is also a former divinity student, has seen war at its worst and knows too well that to those who pass through it, war can be exhilarating and even addictive: “It gives us purpose, meaning, a reason for living.”Drawing on his own experience and on the literature of combat from Homer to Michael Herr, Hedges shows how war seduces not just those on the front lines but entire societies, corrupting politics, destroying culture, and perverting the most basic human desires. Mixing hard-nosed realism with profound moral and philosophical insight, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning is a work of terrible power and redemptive clarity whose truths have never been more necessary.
Details Out Of Books War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
| Title | : | War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning |
| Author | : | Chris Hedges |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 224 pages |
| Published | : | June 10th 2003 by Anchor Books (first published January 1st 2002) |
| Categories | : | Nonfiction. Politics. History. War. Philosophy. Military Fiction |
Rating Out Of Books War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
Ratings: 4.15 From 4937 Users | 559 ReviewsCrit Out Of Books War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning
War journalist Chris Hedges describes the allure of war, before, during, and after. How the myth of patriotism and the enemy is created by the leaders, the soldiers, and the media; the vicious cycle of hatred that fuels itself - the division lays the ground for hatred, the hatred causes more division. How the moral universe changes during times of war, how what is acceptable, normal is ultimately a mental construct with as much reality as any dream. How even the nature of relationships, betweenI have read many accounts of the horrors of war, including first person narratives of the Holocaust and Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried." As part of my research on the war in Ukraine, I viewed footage of civilian bodies -- dead and dismembered -- including women and children, from artillery shells, bombs, and shrapnel; bloated and blackened bodies of fighters scattered in fields and on the sides of roads. Yet, I never seem to become inured to it. I still wince and feel my stomach curdle,
The imagery and polemic of this book are strong. His take on war is brutal and honest enough that I found myself deeply affected at many points. And his prose is wonderful. Ergo, I can't say I didn't like it, but I wanted to like it more than I did.But the style was off-putting to say the least. Like any good journalist, Hedges does an excellent job relaying experience and retelling stories from others. But each chapter is filled with episodes he recounts, that seem haphazardly thrown together.
though heartfelt, inspiring and disturbing, i can't say i wholeheartedly loved this book. it deals with some HEAVY topics - genocide, rape, xenophobia - and it's written with an intimate awareness of how such atrocities arise, escalate, disappear and return. many of the observations remind me of george orwell, whose fantastic essay "politics and the english language" seems to have (at least partially) influenced hedges' thoughts on language. actually, these are the most informative sections of
To say that war is a hellish horror is one of the great clichés, and it's become something of an international-journalist mainstay to report on one's own experiences with the aforementioned hellish horror. You hear the same stories told again and again, recombined, in various settings: Bosnia, Vietnam, Iraq, Peru, the Congo. It all starts to sound the same.Hedges to his credit, is an excellent reporter, and while he sometimes falls into that trap-- the "you ain't seen what I've seen, been where
An extraordinary and lucid account of the effect of war on societies. War is a Force That Gives Us Meaning is both the title and thesis of this book. Chris Hedges is a long-time war correspondent for national news publications and witnessed conflicts in central America, Sudan, Iraq, Gaza, and the Balkans. He describes with great clarity the incredible excitment of war that can motivate a whole society, as well as the unbearable cruelty of conflict. Hedges is no pacifist, but he is frank about
I was really excited to read this book when I found out it was assigned for one of my classes. I was disappointed. I found it more annoying than anything else.1) Structurally, it was a mess. He has chapter titles that ostensibly correlate with the subject of each section, but he'll stick to that topic for about a page and a half before going back to rambling on about whatever the hell he felt like writing about. It's really annoying and the disorganization made the book seem even more
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