Oh, wow, that is a strange coincidence. It's strange to say I enjoyed a book that is about pain, death, and suffering...but I simply couldn't put it down. It gives you a good look at the battle, but it's also a riveting personal account - you understand more of what the men are going through, you get to know these men who were willing to give their all. It's painful to read in some places, and in others funny, even. I found it incredibly moving.
And I'm fascinated by the topic of your dissertation! That exact topic was an ongoing discussion between me and another person, who was considerably younger--she couldn't remember Somalia, so she was outraged, after seeing Hotel Rwanda, that America had done nothing to stop the genocide. I tried to place Rwanda in context with other conflicts in the 1990s, but even though I lived through it, my area of expertise is the US Civil War, so I wasn't the best person to do it.
Bowden mentions in his sources another book I may try to find - Savage Peace: Americans at War in the 1990s by Daniel P. Bolger (Presidio 1995). Bowden praises it highly, though of course it only covers the first half of the decade, so now I'm curious whether, 13 years later, Bolger might have written another volume...
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branchandroot
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Date: 2008-04-27 11:53 pm (UTC)And I'm fascinated by the topic of your dissertation! That exact topic was an ongoing discussion between me and another person, who was considerably younger--she couldn't remember Somalia, so she was outraged, after seeing Hotel Rwanda, that America had done nothing to stop the genocide. I tried to place Rwanda in context with other conflicts in the 1990s, but even though I lived through it, my area of expertise is the US Civil War, so I wasn't the best person to do it.
Bowden mentions in his sources another book I may try to find - Savage Peace: Americans at War in the 1990s by Daniel P. Bolger (Presidio 1995). Bowden praises it highly, though of course it only covers the first half of the decade, so now I'm curious whether, 13 years later, Bolger might have written another volume...