A History of Bombing by Sven Lindqvist, Swedish cultural historian and author of Exterminate All the Brutes.
Sven Lindqvist is one of Sweden´s most innovative writers, fast building a cult following for his unorthodox, fiercely moral works of cultural history. Desert Divers and Exterminate All the Brutes exposed the depths of European imperialism and racism in Africa; now Lindqvist turns his clear inquisitive eye on aerial bombing, and the profound and terrible effects of its aftermath on the 20th century.
Drawing on a rich range of sources, from popular fiction, to first hand accounts by the victims and perpetrators of bombing, from official government documents, to his own personal experiences as a child, parent and grandparent, Lindqvist unearths the fascinating history of the development of air power. He exposes the racist assumptions underlying colonial bombing campaigns in North Africa, and France and England’s use of bombing to subdue postwar independence movements; and he probes the psychology of Bomber Harris. He sets out the recipe for napalm, and the science of smart bombs, and he asks some uncomfortable questions: did bombs ever produce the expected results? Is bombing civilians a war crime, and if so why have the laws of war and international justice proved so impotent? Why can´t the truth about Hiroshima be told in the Air and Space museum in Washington?
Lindqvist has constructed the book in an ingenious way: as a sort of labyrinth in which the reader is offered a number of paths through a century of war. This makes for a fascinating reading experience, allowing us to grasp the chaos of history, and the way in which different narratives attempt to make sense of it.
” This book is a labyrinth with twenty-two entrances and no exit. Each entrance opens into a narrative or an argument, which you then follow by going from text to text according to the instruction To + the number of the section where the narrative is continued. So from entrance 1 you proceed to section 166 and continue reading section by section until you come to 173, where another To takes you back to entrance 2.
In order to move through time, you also have to move through the book, often forwards, but sometimes backwards. Wherever you are in the text, events and thoughts from that same period surround you, but they belong to narratives other than the one you happen to be following. That’s the intention. That way the text emerges as what it is-one of many possible paths through the chaos of history.
So welcome to the labyrinth! Follow the threads, put together the horrifying puzzle and, once you have seen my century, build one of your own from other pieces.”
Grenade factory in backyard annoys neighbors. Ananova
