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First Sentence
In Fernando Arrabal's play Guernica, one of the characters is simply called the Writer. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
In Fernando Arrabal's play Guernica, one of the characters is simply called the Writer. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Don't be deceived by the size of this little book: it is a masterly account of the development of the mass aerial bombing of civilian populations, focusing primarily on the Spanish Civil War atrocity from which it takes its title and the bombing campaigns of the Second World War, with references too to earlier instances (e.g. Zeppelin attacks, colonialist bombing of Arabs and Kurds) and more recent and continuing manifestations. As the author notes in the Introduction, it's not a work of military history. It casts its net far wider, taking in political debates, psychological consequences and literary representations. Above all, it's about the capacity of the human imagination to respond to the notion and fact of total war. A key theme is the duplicity attending bombing campaigns, ranging from Spanish Nationalist and German denials of involvement in the destruction of Guernica (Germany only formally acknowledged responsibility 60 years after the event) to American denial of causing a tapestry reproduction of Picasso's painting hanging outside the UN Security Chamber to be covered when Powell argued the case for war against Iraq.
The text is accompanied by many striking reproductions of contemporary cartoons, photographs, dust-jackets and posters, and there's a detailed section on `Further reading'. A minor gripe concerns the index: it seems to have been initially intended as an index of names, but then some other terms (including `fear', `impersonality' and `mustard gas') allowed in. In this case, it's hard to see why `morale' and its cognates don't feature since, as the book argues, a continuing debate has been whether mass bombing was/is successful in destroying civilian morale. That small moan aside, this is a book that should be read by anyone concerned by man's inhumanity to children, women and men, the `quite ordinary people in their quite ordinary homes' who have been deliberately targeted as a result of political decisions.
The text is accompanied by many striking reproductions of contemporary cartoons, photographs, dust-jackets and posters, and there's a detailed section on `Further reading'. A minor gripe concerns the index: it seems to have been initially intended as an index of names, but then some other terms (including `fear', `impersonality' and `mustard gas') allowed in. In this case, it's hard to see why `morale' and its cognates don't feature since, as the book argues, a continuing debate has been whether mass bombing was/is successful in destroying civilian morale. That small moan aside, this is a book that should be read by anyone concerned by man's inhumanity to children, women and men, the `quite ordinary people in their quite ordinary homes' who have been deliberately targeted as a result of political decisions.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is not really about the bombing of Guernica at all. Rather it takes this moment from the Spanish Civil War as a vantage point from which to examine the evolution of total war and specifically aerial warfare in political and cultural terms. Given its brevity, this is by no means a comprehensive exploration of anything. It does, though, make some fascinating connections and pose some interesting questions.
The length is a problem, however. There is a strong sense that important issues are glossed over, that the author engages in some 'fancy footwork' in order to keep the word count this low. At various points, I would have liked a fuller discussion of the material, a deeper analysis and a more comprehensive historical frame of reference. Put simply, the length limits the thesis.
Having said that, this is still a succinct, lively and provocative book, and is well worth a couple of hours of your time.
The length is a problem, however. There is a strong sense that important issues are glossed over, that the author engages in some 'fancy footwork' in order to keep the word count this low. At various points, I would have liked a fuller discussion of the material, a deeper analysis and a more comprehensive historical frame of reference. Put simply, the length limits the thesis.
Having said that, this is still a succinct, lively and provocative book, and is well worth a couple of hours of your time.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Though on a small scale by later standards, the bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica on 26 April 1937 ranks as one of the iconic moments in the 20th century. Memorialized by Picasso in what is perhaps his most famous work, it was an event that shocked the West for the degree of death and destructiveness inflicted on a single, defenseless community. For many Europeans it symbolized their fears for what a new war would bring to the continent, and indeed in retrospect it also served as a precursor for the conflict that was soon to come. Ian Patterson's book about the bombing of the town is both more and less than a study of the attack, as he broadens his focus beyond the actual event to fit it into the context of its era.
Patterson's focus is evident from the start, as he begins not with the bombing of the town but with how it was initially covered by the media of the time. This approach serves to demonstrate how the meaning of the event was contested from the start, as both the Republican and Nationalist sides in the Spanish Civil War present it as an example of their opponents' barbarity. Charged with launching the attack, the Nationalists denied any responsibility and instead accused the Republicans of attacking the village in an effort to galvanize public opinion against General Franco's forces. The images of the destroyed town, though, quickly took on a larger meaning, as they served as visual embodiments of the new type of war, one in which civilians suffered as well as combatants.
From here Patterson brings in the larger context of the literature of the times about war, particularly war from the air. The limited use of air power against cities during the First World War created awareness of the threat, while the advances in technology and the warnings of experts served to magnify it. This anxiety was a consequence of the emergent concept of total war, where whole societies were now targeted by enemy forces as a means of waging war. Though the fears of the 1930s proved exaggerated in some respects, Guernica's fate was indeed one that would soon be inflicted on an increasingly escalating scale upon Rotterdam, London, Hamburg, Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and others, all of which helped to cement Guernica's status as a harbinger for the decades that followed.
Short yet enlightening, Patterson's book is a thoughtful examination of the bombing of Guernica and the broader meaning it held for his age. While his definition of total war (which he limits to the use fo air power to effect destruction) is rather narrow, his book nonetheless serves to illustrate how closely we have come to associating the concept with the devastation brought by the bombing of cities. This is a work that should be read not just by people seeking to learn about Guernica's destruction, but also by anyone interested in modern warfare and its impact on Western thought in the modern age.
Patterson's focus is evident from the start, as he begins not with the bombing of the town but with how it was initially covered by the media of the time. This approach serves to demonstrate how the meaning of the event was contested from the start, as both the Republican and Nationalist sides in the Spanish Civil War present it as an example of their opponents' barbarity. Charged with launching the attack, the Nationalists denied any responsibility and instead accused the Republicans of attacking the village in an effort to galvanize public opinion against General Franco's forces. The images of the destroyed town, though, quickly took on a larger meaning, as they served as visual embodiments of the new type of war, one in which civilians suffered as well as combatants.
From here Patterson brings in the larger context of the literature of the times about war, particularly war from the air. The limited use of air power against cities during the First World War created awareness of the threat, while the advances in technology and the warnings of experts served to magnify it. This anxiety was a consequence of the emergent concept of total war, where whole societies were now targeted by enemy forces as a means of waging war. Though the fears of the 1930s proved exaggerated in some respects, Guernica's fate was indeed one that would soon be inflicted on an increasingly escalating scale upon Rotterdam, London, Hamburg, Dresden, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, and others, all of which helped to cement Guernica's status as a harbinger for the decades that followed.
Short yet enlightening, Patterson's book is a thoughtful examination of the bombing of Guernica and the broader meaning it held for his age. While his definition of total war (which he limits to the use fo air power to effect destruction) is rather narrow, his book nonetheless serves to illustrate how closely we have come to associating the concept with the devastation brought by the bombing of cities. This is a work that should be read not just by people seeking to learn about Guernica's destruction, but also by anyone interested in modern warfare and its impact on Western thought in the modern age.
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