|
|
Pearl Harbor/Hiroshima/9-11/Iraq
John W. Dower
ISBN: 9780393061505
Format: Hardback
Publisher:WW Norton & Co
Write a review
"I began researching and writing this study shortly after September 11, 2001, when, comparisons between Al Qaeda's surprise attack and Japan, at Pearl Harbor six decades earlier flooded the media in the United States. Japan and World War II Asia hays draw n my attention as a historian for many scars, and analogies between the new conflict and that old one were provocative in unanticipated ways…
Author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Embracing Defeat, John W. Dower returns with a groundbreaking comparative study of the dynamics and pathologies of war in modern times, presenting a conceptual breakthrough in the ways we think about "culture" in general and "war" in particular. Immediately after the attacks, the US media proclaimed 11 September a "day of infamy" comparable to Pearl Harbor. Cultures of War takes this analogy as a point of departure for a vivid analysis of the war with Japan, the war on terror and the war with Iraq. Dower addresses institutional failures of intelligence and imagination, the "strategic imbecility" of Japan's and America's wars of choice in 1941 and 2003, terror bombing and the targeting of civilians since the Second World War and the driving forces behind Pan-Asian and Pan-Islam movements. A final section compares occupied Japan and occupied Iraq.
| ISBN | 0393061507 | | Pages | 640 | | ISBN13 | 9780393061505
(What's this?) | | Weight (grammes) | 1011 | | Publisher | WW Norton & Co | | Published in | New York | | Imprint | WW Norton & Co | | Height (mm) | 242 | | Format | Hardback | | Width (mm) | 165 | | Publication date | 19 Oct 2010 | | Spine width (mm) | 44 | | DEWEY | 355.02 | | Academic level | General | | DEWEY edition | DC22 | |
|
| |
| | | List of Illustrations | | | | | | Preface: The Evolution of an Inquiry | | | | | | Acknowledgments | | | | | | Part I "Pearl, Harbor" As Code | | | | | | Wars of Choice and Failures of Intelligence | | | | 1 | | Infamy and the Cracked Mirror of History | | 3 | | | | "Pearl Harbor" As Code | | 4 | | | | The Boomerang Of "Pearl Harbor" | | 14 | | 2 | | The Failure of Intelligence | | 22 | | | | Prelude To Pearl Harbor | | 22 | | | | Prelude To 9-11 | | 27 | | | | Postmortems: Pearl Harbor | | 34 | | | | Postmortems: 9-11 | | 38 | | 3 | | The Failure of Imagination | | 42 | | | | "Little Yellow Sons-Of-Bitches" | | 42 | | | | Rationality, Desperation, And Risk | | 50 | | | | Aiding And Abetting The Enemy | | 53 | | | | "This Little Terrorist In Afghanistan" | | 57 | | 4 | | Innocence, Evil, and Amnesia | | 62 | | | | Catastrophe And The Transfer Of Innocence | | 62 | | | | Evil And The Transfer Of Evil | | 68 | | | | Amnesia And Frankenstein's Monster | | 74 | | | | Evil Where The Price Is Worth It | | 87 | | 5 | | Wars of Choice and Strategic Imbecilities | | 95 | | | | Pearl Harbor And "Operation Iraqi Freedom" | | 95 | | | | The Emperor System And Imperial Presidency | | 101 | | | | Choosing War | | 111 | | | | Strategic Imbecilities | | 115 | | | | Deception And Delusion | | 125 | | | More... | | |
"Dower's Cultures of War is a thought-provoking, scholarly and deeply polemical book..." David Pilling, Financial Times  Be the first to write a customer review
|
|
|
|
|
Enlarge
