- Published: 02/02/2012
- ISBN: 9781847085016
- 129x20mm
- 240 pages
A History Of Bombing
Sven Lindqvist
Translated by Linda Haverty Rugg
On 1 November 1911, Lieutenant Cavarotti leaned out of the cockpit of his delicate aircraft and, holding a Haasen hand grenade, began one of the most devastating military tactics of the twentieth century: aerial bombing. This is but one of many points of entry Lindqvist presents in this innovative history. Structuring the book in a way that re-enacts the disruptions of history caused by the advent of the bomb, Lindqvist offers his readers a series of ways into and paths through this re-examination of a century of war. He turns his fresh, inquisitive eye and tireless moral sense on the fascinating histories behind the development of air power, bombs and the laws of war and international justice, demonstrating how the practices of two world wars were born of colonial warfare.
£8.99
I was powerfully affected by [this book], which feels, as we move into the era of drone warfare, compelling and morally urgent
Hari Kunzru, Books of the Year, Guardian
Ingenious and timely ... deserves to be read by all who wish to understand militarism in its many guises
John Pilger
It is learned, yet concise; doom-laden, yet light. A sobering and important argument ... it is gripping stuff. Lindqvist has written an exceptionally good book
Robert Winder, New Statesman
From the Same Author
Sven Lindqvist on Granta.com
Essays & Memoir | The Online Edition
To Zinder
Sven Lindqvist
Obsessed with a single line from Conrad’s The Heart of Darkness – Kurtz’s injunction to ‘Exterminate All the Brutes’ – Sven Lindqvist set out across Central Africa, and wrote a book that revealed precisely what Europe’s imperial powers had exacted on Africa’s people over the course of the preceding two centuries.