A History of Bombing by Sven Lindqvist
An daring literary and historical look at the ideologies of war and violence, by the author of Exterminate All the Brutes. On November 1, 1911, Lieutenant Cavotti 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 the many points of entry Lindqvist presents in this cleverly constructed, innovative history. Structuring his book in a way that reenacts the disruptions of history caused by the advent of the bomb, Lindqvist presents a series of entries that mirror the disturbing story he unravels. Picking up where his controversial Exterminate All the Brutes left off, Lindqvist focuses this time on the fascinating histories behind the development of air power, bombs, and the laws of war and international justice, demonstrating how the practices of the two world wars were born of colonial warfare. Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly Describing genocide as part of the master story of Western civilizations, Swedish author and political activist Lindqvist (The Skull Measurer's Mistake) argues that before the development of powered flight, bombs delivered from the air were regarded as an efficient way to kill large groups of people at a safe distance. What the bombs and rockets have from the beginning been intended to do, he continues, is slaughter others and outsiders--peoples of color who will not submit to imperialism, or who are just somehow in the way. Lindqvist offers here a work whose format is more striking than its contents. The book, translated by Berkeley Scandinavian studies professor Linda Haverty Rugg, is composed of excerpts and vignettes, drawn from remarkably diverse sources on aerial bombardment, and numbered 1 to 399, proceeding chronologically from the A.D. 762 to 1999, but mostly concerning the 20th century. (Number 155 begins, During the 1920s, novels about the future often dealt with a time of barbarism.) Most intriguingly, according to Lindqvist, the widespread use of aerial bombardment by Western states against each other in the two world wars was an anomaly made possible not by dehumanizing, but by dewesternizing the targets. The end of the Cold War stripped away the mask; Kosovo was only the first stage of an aerial reign of terror. Lindqvist's case, too simplistic and too overstated to be convincing, is nevertheless powerful. His juxtaposition of fact-based history with passages taken from survivalist fiction, racist fantasies like The Turner Diaries and dystopian future-war predictions demonstrates the extent to which aerial bombing is regarded as an ultimate weapon for destroying the opposition. Anyone who thought twice about what happened in the Gulf War or Kosovo will find this intentionally fragmentary analysis compelling; others will be less sympathetic. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. About the Author Sven Lindqvist is a prominent Swedish writer known internationally for his books on China and Latin America. His previous works available in English include Exterminate All the Brutes and The Skull Measurer's Mistake (both from The New Press). He lives in Stockholm. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. Review This is a small, but brilliant book. -- Dagens Nyheter --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Overview
Title: A History of Bombing by Sven Lindqvist
Author: Sven Lindqvist
Book Cover Type:
Pages: 224
Language: ENG- English
Condition
Publisher
Publishers: Granta Books
Location:
Year: 2001
Pages:
Illustrators
Edition
Dimensions
160 x 241mm
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