What do you think?
Rate this book
The View from the Ground
First published in 1959, but now offered in a revised and expanded edition, The View from the Ground presents over six decades of Gellhorn's ruminations on political, civil, and social issues and crises, from a lynching in the American South in the 1930s through a recent visit to Cuba to see what is new and what remains the same in a country that is still off limits to most Americans. Gellhorn's ability to get to the truth of a situation heard makes her writing transcend the short shelf life of most reportage.
457 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1936
52 people are currently reading
741 people want to read
About the author
Martha Gellhorn
63 books313 followersMartha Ellis Gellhorn (1908-1998) was an American novelist, travel writer and journalist. She is considered to be one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century. The Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism is named after her.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
December 22, 2018
Martha Gellhorn is considered one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century. She reported on virtually every major world conflict during her sixty-year career as a journalist. She writes passionately. She writes to make her readers care about that which she herself passionately cares. She is opinionated and is not afraid to speak her mind, regardless of what others may think. She expresses herself using satirical, ironical humor. I enjoy her disrespectful jokes.
The book is a collection of articles published over the years in different magazines. They are sorted chronologically, except with a few exceptions, decade by decade from the thirties through the eighties. The result is a retrospective survey of six decades of the 20th century.
Gellhorn visits and writes about political issues of many different countries—Cuba, Czechoslovakia, El Salvador, France, Germany, Great Britain, Haiti, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Poland, Spain, USA and Vietnam. Since the articles are in chronological order and because she visited many of the countries more than once, one does return to the same topic more than once. I like that she chose to arrange the articles in chronological order, despite that this leads to some repetition.
Martha Gellhorn speaks out against poverty. While she has a clear distaste for communism, she also acknowledges that which Castro so successively accomplished in Cuba. She gives praise where warranted and outspokenly criticizes injustices, torture and those in power who have not adequately taken up the battle for human rights and against poverty, social injustices and torture. Kissinger, Nixon, Reagan and Thatcher are but four leaders she heavily criticizes. She covers the Eichmann trials. We travel with her when she sets up home in Kenya. Her writing describing how she was treated and how she felt and the conclusions she drew from her sojourn in Haiti is revealing and extremely well written. Three chapters, the Haitian one, Gellhorn’s description of a 1936 lynching in Mississippi, and a chapter describing the torture of Miguel in El Salvador, are reason enough to read this book. Even if you have read before about the atrocities of the war in Vietnam and World War Two, as just shown, other important topics are covered too. Some chapters are better than others, but I have not the slightest hesitation in recommending this book.
There is very little about Hemingway in the book. She was his third wife.
Christine Marshall narrates the audiobook. Her narration is not to my liking. She reads very quickly and my one star rating of her narration is meant to express my vehement dislike. I want to be given time to chuckle at Gellhorn’s razor-sharp humor and biting sarcasm. I want more time to think about what is being said. There is no reason for Marshall to rattle off the lines in such a hurry! There are good lines in this book; I want time to appreciate them.
*****************
Books by or about by Martha Gellhorn
The Face Of War 4 stars
The View from the Ground 4 stars
Love and Ruin 4 stars
(The last is a book of historical fiction about Martha Gellhorn's marriage to Ernest Hemingway.)
The book is a collection of articles published over the years in different magazines. They are sorted chronologically, except with a few exceptions, decade by decade from the thirties through the eighties. The result is a retrospective survey of six decades of the 20th century.
Gellhorn visits and writes about political issues of many different countries—Cuba, Czechoslovakia, El Salvador, France, Germany, Great Britain, Haiti, Israel, Italy, Kenya, Mexico, Poland, Spain, USA and Vietnam. Since the articles are in chronological order and because she visited many of the countries more than once, one does return to the same topic more than once. I like that she chose to arrange the articles in chronological order, despite that this leads to some repetition.
Martha Gellhorn speaks out against poverty. While she has a clear distaste for communism, she also acknowledges that which Castro so successively accomplished in Cuba. She gives praise where warranted and outspokenly criticizes injustices, torture and those in power who have not adequately taken up the battle for human rights and against poverty, social injustices and torture. Kissinger, Nixon, Reagan and Thatcher are but four leaders she heavily criticizes. She covers the Eichmann trials. We travel with her when she sets up home in Kenya. Her writing describing how she was treated and how she felt and the conclusions she drew from her sojourn in Haiti is revealing and extremely well written. Three chapters, the Haitian one, Gellhorn’s description of a 1936 lynching in Mississippi, and a chapter describing the torture of Miguel in El Salvador, are reason enough to read this book. Even if you have read before about the atrocities of the war in Vietnam and World War Two, as just shown, other important topics are covered too. Some chapters are better than others, but I have not the slightest hesitation in recommending this book.
There is very little about Hemingway in the book. She was his third wife.
Christine Marshall narrates the audiobook. Her narration is not to my liking. She reads very quickly and my one star rating of her narration is meant to express my vehement dislike. I want to be given time to chuckle at Gellhorn’s razor-sharp humor and biting sarcasm. I want more time to think about what is being said. There is no reason for Marshall to rattle off the lines in such a hurry! There are good lines in this book; I want time to appreciate them.
*****************
Books by or about by Martha Gellhorn
The Face Of War 4 stars
The View from the Ground 4 stars
Love and Ruin 4 stars
(The last is a book of historical fiction about Martha Gellhorn's marriage to Ernest Hemingway.)
September 27, 2014
I've long been interested in Martha Gellhorn, more so than that one guy she was married to that time, but I've wanted to know more beyond she was a lady journalist who killed herself at a very advanced age.
This collection ranges from essays written across six decades, focusing on peace-time reporting. While her essays were about countries in the midst of peace (ie, not in the middle of war), she showed places and times that were not entirely peaceful. She wrote about the lynching of a black man she witnessed in the American South; orphans who had to make a new lives for themselves in Rome, shedding light on the fact that it's the children who suffer from war the most; the plight of the homeless; the awful torture that frequently took place in El Salvador; and more. Some of these articles (such as the ones about torture or the lynching) are exceptionally difficult to read and are not recommended for more sensitive readers.
Normally I don't say things like that, especially in a situation like Gellhorn's writing in which she felt it was part of her responsibility to show the public the truth, and we should all learn from it and not shy away from it. But some of the articles are very graphic. Reader-beware and stuff.
I found myself not being able to breeze through these articles like I had initially expected, since none of them are particularly long. But, again, due to some of the subject matter (when not graphic, per se, they were still heavily political), I found myself choosing to read just one or two essays an evening, and then spending the rest of my time thinking about what I had read.
Gellhorn had many experiences, she got to go to pretty much every where. She is, based on this collection, someone I would have loved to have a drink with. I have another collection of her actual war writing (which people seem to be more familiar with), The Face of War, that I am eager to read. But I'm taking a break before I do - if several of these were difficult for me to read, and they were written about times of peace... how will I feel after reading her writing about war?
This collection ranges from essays written across six decades, focusing on peace-time reporting. While her essays were about countries in the midst of peace (ie, not in the middle of war), she showed places and times that were not entirely peaceful. She wrote about the lynching of a black man she witnessed in the American South; orphans who had to make a new lives for themselves in Rome, shedding light on the fact that it's the children who suffer from war the most; the plight of the homeless; the awful torture that frequently took place in El Salvador; and more. Some of these articles (such as the ones about torture or the lynching) are exceptionally difficult to read and are not recommended for more sensitive readers.
Normally I don't say things like that, especially in a situation like Gellhorn's writing in which she felt it was part of her responsibility to show the public the truth, and we should all learn from it and not shy away from it. But some of the articles are very graphic. Reader-beware and stuff.
I found myself not being able to breeze through these articles like I had initially expected, since none of them are particularly long. But, again, due to some of the subject matter (when not graphic, per se, they were still heavily political), I found myself choosing to read just one or two essays an evening, and then spending the rest of my time thinking about what I had read.
Gellhorn had many experiences, she got to go to pretty much every where. She is, based on this collection, someone I would have loved to have a drink with. I have another collection of her actual war writing (which people seem to be more familiar with), The Face of War, that I am eager to read. But I'm taking a break before I do - if several of these were difficult for me to read, and they were written about times of peace... how will I feel after reading her writing about war?
June 4, 2017
I picked up Gellhorn knowing of her work alongside the Spanish Republicans, and having heard that in this book she wrote about the U.S. imperialist involvement in El Salvador. Much of this book was written with the condescendingly 'benevolent' racism of the white liberal, but it wasn't until her articles on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict that I almost put the book down for good. Gellhorn is a rabid Zionist, and horrifically Islamophobic. The worst of it is outlined here: http://middleeastrealitycheck.blogspo.... I did force myself to finish the book and I was rewarded with idiotic reverse-racism bilge in her essay on Haiti, in which she repeatedly refers to herself as a 'white negro.' Interestingly enough, the El Salvador coverage I had been interested in wasn't Gellhorn's at all, but the account of a tortured Salvadoreño taken down by the Commission of Human Rights in El Salvador. That piece is the only part of the book I can recommend in good conscience.
July 18, 2017
Spunky, fiery, salty. Always an inspiration for her travels and her boss-bitch opinions, even if they're not always changeable or even-handed. Sad to think she wrote this, or really, collected these stories and reflected upon them, with so much zest, just two years before she killed herself. Also interesting how she treats "Justice at Night"--makes some half-assed disclaimers about it being "from memory" and therefore "not really reporting" which is a nice way of saying "this story is totally fiction, although based on events that did happen" (but which Gellhorn didn't witness firsthand). Well, she's in good stead with Capote there.
July 3, 2018
Absolutely fantastic - everyone should read this book
July 8, 2018
My favourite reporter; a great, compulsive, austere, compassionate writer. Better than Fermor when happy, better than Orwell when irate. I am always interested in what she has to say about literally anything: this edition covers her peacetime reporting, which is to say her poverty-and-rubble-reconstruction reporting: Great Depression Deep South; the arts in Communist Poland; the difficult path to democracy in Spain; Thatcher and the miners (...) She ranges over the whole sad half-century, bringing her maternal, judgmental, sardonic history to bear on what could otherwise have been ordinary journalism. Chastises communists and capitalists, liars, mercenaries and torturers of whatever justification. Never mentions her gender; she never let anyone stop her for any reason, let alone that.
Her natural, common-sense compassion and fairness only cracks when it comes to Palestine; she contorts herself terribly in the face of shocking Nasserian anti-Semitism. It's not a whitewash; she talks to dozens of Palestinians in Jordan and Gaza, covers the Irgun and the bulldozers. But she is totally defensive about the Balfour Declaration and the Six Day War; is unusually eager to show up the many fibs of the Palestinian refugees (: confirmation bias); and excludes their self-determination alone among the nations of the earth:
How many deep inconsistencies are we allowed, before we stop being great? I don't know exactly, but more than one.
Her natural, common-sense compassion and fairness only cracks when it comes to Palestine; she contorts herself terribly in the face of shocking Nasserian anti-Semitism. It's not a whitewash; she talks to dozens of Palestinians in Jordan and Gaza, covers the Irgun and the bulldozers. But she is totally defensive about the Balfour Declaration and the Six Day War; is unusually eager to show up the many fibs of the Palestinian refugees (: confirmation bias); and excludes their self-determination alone among the nations of the earth:
Arafat has had enough protection money from the oil Arabs to finance the education of two generations of young Palestinians, a chance to rise beyond the poverty of the camps into a good self-reliant life. Instead he has recruited two generations for training only in the use of guns and plastique, and insisted on a futile goal: Palestine for the Palestinians...
If I had been twenty years younger, I would have got myself to Vietnam somehow and joined the Vietcong, though handicapped by my height. Not much use for digging tunnels. Vietnam for the Vietnamese. Afghanistan for the Afghans. El Salvador for the Salvadorans. Nicaragua for the Nicaraguans. The inherent right of all peoples to self-determination. If they need civil war to determine how they shall be governed, that is their business and nobody else's.
How many deep inconsistencies are we allowed, before we stop being great? I don't know exactly, but more than one.
March 8, 2019
The first article in this collection is titled "Justice at Night" in which she witnesses a lynching in Mississippi. A total kick in the gut.
The rest is a really good overview of her peacetime journalism, from Gaza to El Salvador to Cuba. Not always in sync with my sensibilities, and despite her protestations, she does fall into what today we would consider racist blind spots.
The rest is a really good overview of her peacetime journalism, from Gaza to El Salvador to Cuba. Not always in sync with my sensibilities, and despite her protestations, she does fall into what today we would consider racist blind spots.
July 14, 2019
The more things change the more they stay the same. I don't always agree with her perceptions regarding government and societies but I really value her opinion. As an individual who is deeply depressed regarding the current political situation in the United States and the relationship with the rest of the world, reading this book enabled me to feel a little bit better. Her perceptive insights into world events, most of which have occurred during my lifetime, enabled me to understand how oblivious I have been. I spent my life taking care of life in general, work and family. I didn't want to read or think about power, people in powerful positions thruout the world and all of the inhumanity which occurs on a daily basis. I had to retire from work and get old to spend time reading and thinking before I really appreciated the concepts of fairness, respect and the people thruout the world that are 'just trying to get by'. This book is well written, thoughtful and describes historical events which everybody should at least think about. In my humble opinion it is an excellent book.
October 9, 2017
The author lived quite the traveling life; her journalism work took her all over the Earth.
Her perceptions of what life was like was as accurate as she could make it with her progressive bent on life was lived country by country. She lived quite the life as she wrote over 6 decades of stories. This book is a compilation of her favorites.
Her perceptions of what life was like was as accurate as she could make it with her progressive bent on life was lived country by country. She lived quite the life as she wrote over 6 decades of stories. This book is a compilation of her favorites.
July 17, 2007
A very good account of life/events throughout her career categorized by decades. The articles and stories are vivid and emotional. The rememberance of a lynching she and her companion happened upon while travelling through the south was one that has stayed with me.
March 10, 2019
She was known as the premier war correspondent of the 20th century. This book does not cover any wars, only the onsets or aftermaths of a few. MG was obviously not a fan of any government, as she saw the results of the decisions made by the ruling ruler/president/dictator/despots. None of these essays are what we today would call PC. She pulls no punches about her views of any individual or group with which she comes in direct contact. If you are squeamish, this book is probably not for you, or even if you are strongly in favor of any party/faction/or ideology. If you are willing to accept a clear look at the world we do and have lived in from the 1930s through the 1980s you will learn a lot and maybe enjoy it as much as I did. She has divided the chapters by decade with a synopsis at the end of each decade.
August 8, 2018
The view from the ground by Martha Gellhorn
Enjoyed reading these stories and the subjects are so diverisified they are interesting.
Liked the different locations and learning about the culture.
Things I really liked is that the span of stories covers over 60 years.
War stories she makes you feel as if you are there, with fear as you ride your bike to the border.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
Enjoyed reading these stories and the subjects are so diverisified they are interesting.
Liked the different locations and learning about the culture.
Things I really liked is that the span of stories covers over 60 years.
War stories she makes you feel as if you are there, with fear as you ride your bike to the border.
I received this book from National Library Service for my BARD (Braille Audio Reading Device).
April 12, 2023
Gellhorn is simply one of the best American journalists of her time. The vivid and searing pieces about our world in times of piece, taken with her wartime reportage in ‘The Face of War’, should now be considered classics. If you want to know what great journalism is then read these two stunning books.
April 18, 2025
“Adolf Eichmann is the most dire warning to us all. He is a warning to guard our souls; to refuse utterly and forever to give allegiance without question, to obey orders silently, to scream slogans.”
“I loathed the men in Washington, safe in their elegant offices, making war on paper, intoning geopolitical rubbish, giving the orders, taking none of the pain.”
“I loathed the men in Washington, safe in their elegant offices, making war on paper, intoning geopolitical rubbish, giving the orders, taking none of the pain.”
September 13, 2018
A great journalist and a good writer. It helps that my views so often coincide with Gellhorn's but her work should be read irrespective of your politics.
November 9, 2019
4.25 stars
May 25, 2021
Fifty plus years on inspired journalism, found it kind of disheartening how little improvement has occurred in moral and ethical domains.
June 4, 2025
This book is an interesting and compelling anthology showcasing six decades of on-the-scene journalism by one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century, Martha Gellhorn.
Her vivid, unflinching narratives bring history to life, offering a deeply personal lens on world-shaping events. Gellhorn's prose captures the human cost of war with clarity and empathy, making it as poignant as it is informative. While some sections feel repetitive, the collection remains an excellent read for those seeking both historical insight and literary mastery.
A remarkable testament to Gellhorn's talent and enduring relevance as a journalist.
Her vivid, unflinching narratives bring history to life, offering a deeply personal lens on world-shaping events. Gellhorn's prose captures the human cost of war with clarity and empathy, making it as poignant as it is informative. While some sections feel repetitive, the collection remains an excellent read for those seeking both historical insight and literary mastery.
A remarkable testament to Gellhorn's talent and enduring relevance as a journalist.
October 23, 2023
3,5/5
a book for the minds that race a mile a minute in a vertiginous tango betwixt the critical and creative. martha gellhorn, a name associated with journalistic prestige, chronicles her travels experiences — from nationalist fervour in america in the 1930s, to the devastating aftermath of the world war on eastern europe focalised through paradoxically buoyant soldiers and students, to the silence surrounding conflict in haiti and bolivia — in this richly curated anthology.
i picked up this book in an anarchist bookshop in amsterdam, straight out of touring the museum of marijuana, and sat around various cafés throughout belgium, england and the netherlands intermittently reading the odd article or short story. gellhorn is unapologetically cutthroat and sparing in her language, although plentiful in her descriptiveness. the point is never lost, although she makes it clear that she cannot always ascertain herself strictly on the political ground she covers. the unfamiliar becomes comforting, in her manners of focalising the stories she tells through interviews with the people living through years preceding or directly following sociopolitical turmoil.
this is the “view from the ground”, in question — this stylistic approach that depends on the personal, the story that is built on an amalgamation of accounts surrounding one particularly overwhelming experience. the reality of such unquantifiable experiences verges almost on the fictional, which is then denied by the concrete date and publication of each article presented within her anthology, and the real eyewitnesses testifying to the cruelty of history, and the beauty of life between the lines of fire.
the quotes collected here belong to separate short stories that deal with entirely different topics and settings. they therefore stand on their own. this renders the entire structure of the book itself less burdensome to finish, because it invites incremental visitation and critical contemplation. for any looking to invest in non-fiction, this would be a good start that requires both minimal investment and brings to the fore immeasurable wisdom.
a book for the minds that race a mile a minute in a vertiginous tango betwixt the critical and creative. martha gellhorn, a name associated with journalistic prestige, chronicles her travels experiences — from nationalist fervour in america in the 1930s, to the devastating aftermath of the world war on eastern europe focalised through paradoxically buoyant soldiers and students, to the silence surrounding conflict in haiti and bolivia — in this richly curated anthology.
i picked up this book in an anarchist bookshop in amsterdam, straight out of touring the museum of marijuana, and sat around various cafés throughout belgium, england and the netherlands intermittently reading the odd article or short story. gellhorn is unapologetically cutthroat and sparing in her language, although plentiful in her descriptiveness. the point is never lost, although she makes it clear that she cannot always ascertain herself strictly on the political ground she covers. the unfamiliar becomes comforting, in her manners of focalising the stories she tells through interviews with the people living through years preceding or directly following sociopolitical turmoil.
this is the “view from the ground”, in question — this stylistic approach that depends on the personal, the story that is built on an amalgamation of accounts surrounding one particularly overwhelming experience. the reality of such unquantifiable experiences verges almost on the fictional, which is then denied by the concrete date and publication of each article presented within her anthology, and the real eyewitnesses testifying to the cruelty of history, and the beauty of life between the lines of fire.
the quotes collected here belong to separate short stories that deal with entirely different topics and settings. they therefore stand on their own. this renders the entire structure of the book itself less burdensome to finish, because it invites incremental visitation and critical contemplation. for any looking to invest in non-fiction, this would be a good start that requires both minimal investment and brings to the fore immeasurable wisdom.
July 2, 2024
This gathers all of Gellhorn's Non-war, mostly political/Foreign travel writings from about 1935-1985. Its a slim book and shows off her excellent prose style. But its mostly re-prints of former Magazine articles - and its very superficial. Lots of feeling and opinion, very little factual reporting or objective analysis. For example, she didn't like Germans or Arabs and loved Poles and the Israelis. On the plus side, she was more honest about her Left-wing views as the years went on. Summary: Frankly, I'm amazed this is still in print and still being read. Perhaps it speaks to those on the Left.
December 28, 2020
It's disturbing, shocking and educational; definitely worth reading. Not before the bedtime though!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews