Daily Archives: May 25, 2014

In and Out of War

I suppose if one lives long enough, one will experience war up close or from a distance. Our attitudes toward war, toward those who engage in it or are subject to its consequences, are influenced by the times and circumstances in which we live, by the people we know, by the experiences we have … and by the books we read.

Every war generates its own literature in its time and in later generations. The same war does not automatically generate the same story, or viewpoint, or reader response. The best war literature makes us contemplate the meaning of war to us, personally and as part of larger communities, nations and a diverse species sharing a singular planet.

Whether you choose to read a classic or contemporary book about war, consider following it with a book that approaches the same conflict from an opposing viewpoint. Stretch your vision of humanity. The point is not to change your opinion, although that is possible, but to give you a greater understanding of the human experience.

This blog post honors those who serve and sacrifice on behalf of the rest of us.

Recommended

There is great, enduring war literature for every generation. Some of the best include:
The Iliad by Homer: Greek war in the Bronze Age; poetry
The Art of War by Sun Tzu: ancient Chinese military treatise
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: Franco-Russian War; novel
The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane: American Civil War; novel
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque: World War I; novel
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway: Spanish Civil War; novel
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller: World War II; satire
M.A.S.H. by H. Richard Hornberger (pen name Richard Hooker): Korean War; novel
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien: Vietnam War; fiction, short stories
Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden: Somalia; nonfiction
The Cellist of Sarajevo by Steven Galloway: Bosnian-Serbian War; novel
The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell by John Crawford: Gulf War; memoir
Behind the Lines Edited by Andrew Carroll: non-fiction letters