A History Of Bombing | Granta

  • 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.

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

The Author

Sven Lindqvist (1932-2019) was born in Stockholm, and travelled extensively through Asia, Africa and Latin America. He was the author of thirty books, including A History of Bombing, Desert Divers, which was shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award, and Exterminate All the Brutes, which formed the basis of a major HBO four-part documentary series by Academy Award-nominated writer and director Raoul Peck.

More about the author →

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.