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In the Hot Zone: One Man, One Year, Twenty Wars – Award-Winning War Journalism on Truth, Conflict, and the Reality Beyond Myths
Kevin Sites is a man on a mission. Venturing alone into the dark heart of war, armed with just a video camera, a digital camera, a laptop, and a satellite modem, the award-winning journalist covered virtually every major global hot spot as the first Internet correspondent for Yahoo! News. Beginning his journey with the anarchic chaos of Somalia in September 2005 and ending with the Israeli-Hezbollah war in the summer of 2006, Sites talks with rebels and government troops, child soldiers and child brides, and features the people on every side, including those caught in the cross fire. His honest reporting helps destroy the myths of war by putting a human face on war's inhumanity. Personally, Sites will come to discover that the greatest danger he faces may not be from bombs and bullets, but from the unsettling power of the truth.
349 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 2007
55 people are currently reading
355 people want to read
About the author
Kevin Sites
8 books70 followersKEVIN SITES is an award-winning journalist and author.
He has worked as a reporter for more than thirty years, half of them covering war and disaster for ABC, NBC, CNN, Yahoo News, and Vice News.
During that time he helped pioneer the concept of self-sufficient, video field reporting known as backpack journalism.
He was a 2010 Nieman Journalism Fellow at Harvard University and a 2012 Dart Fellow in Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University.
For a decade he lived in Hong Kong and taught at the University of Hong Kong as an associate professor of practice in journalism.
He is the author of three books on war: In the Hot Zone, The Things They Cannot Say, and Swimming with Warlords.
His debut novel, published by Harper, will be available in bookstores July 11, 2023.
He lives in Oregon.
He has worked as a reporter for more than thirty years, half of them covering war and disaster for ABC, NBC, CNN, Yahoo News, and Vice News.
During that time he helped pioneer the concept of self-sufficient, video field reporting known as backpack journalism.
He was a 2010 Nieman Journalism Fellow at Harvard University and a 2012 Dart Fellow in Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University.
For a decade he lived in Hong Kong and taught at the University of Hong Kong as an associate professor of practice in journalism.
He is the author of three books on war: In the Hot Zone, The Things They Cannot Say, and Swimming with Warlords.
His debut novel, published by Harper, will be available in bookstores July 11, 2023.
He lives in Oregon.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
August 18, 2008
I had high hopes for this one, but was very disappointed from beginning to end. Rooting for Sites to get over his own ego and self-plugging and write something decent, moving and real about the conflicts he covered proved fruitless. He endlessly mentioned his blog (I can't remember the name of it) and how it got millions of hits and was saving the world, etc. and how it's a pain to keep up with after a long day in a war zone, but so many were counting on him, etc. sigh, ad nauseum.
Worse, the writing was hacked up and breezy, I presume, to make it the book feel like a blog. But this resulted in never enough information being shared. And whenever our intrepid reporter nearly got into a subject and was words away from writing with meat, he suddenly had to rush off to get his sat phone linked to the Yahoo office just in time for a deadline. Good work Kevin! That was a close one.
Here's a work that fully disproves, "Never judge a book by it's cover."
Worse, the writing was hacked up and breezy, I presume, to make it the book feel like a blog. But this resulted in never enough information being shared. And whenever our intrepid reporter nearly got into a subject and was words away from writing with meat, he suddenly had to rush off to get his sat phone linked to the Yahoo office just in time for a deadline. Good work Kevin! That was a close one.
Here's a work that fully disproves, "Never judge a book by it's cover."
March 10, 2008
a great idea, poorly executed. he goes from war-torn nation to war-torn nation (20-odd places), but only writes a few pages about each one. well, at 5-10 pages each we can get a 300 page book pretty quickly, but there's only a gloss on each place. not enough depth to make it worthwhile, unless you want to read about one suicide-bombing victim from isreal and one palestinian who suffered at the hands of the IDF. one case on either side? sure, i guess that's balanced in some alternate universe. but i was left wanting a whole lot more...
May 1, 2008
Sites seems dedicated to not turning into just another journalist exploiting the war to further his career - and I do believe he means that - but in this book that doesn't come across. He hops back and forth from one war-ravaged country to the next and doesn't provide any context for the tragic stories he tells. Combine the lack of depth with an average writing style and the book never won me over.
February 20, 2013
"At the end of this journey, I wish I could say that I am more optimistic, more hopeful. But I am not. I have seen the good in people and their resilience, but our violent nature is a formidable opponent. It feeds on the myths and lies we tell ourselves about war, that it is about the armies and the combatants, when truly, it is about the destruction of civil life; not just innocent people but our ideals and our humanity. The only hope may come from preserving and sharing the truth."
This book should be required reading. For everyone. At times this book was almost overwhelming. I was overwhelmed by the sheer weight of knowledge in conflicts I had only a superficial (or nonexistent) knowledge of, the weight of the violence and the destruction and the death contained in these pages. Kevin Sites is a journalist who joins Yahoo! and decides to cover a huge array of conflicts in only one year. There are detailed statistics on every country he visits in the appendixes, but the writing does a solid job of providing background for each area as well. He attempts to interview both sides of warring factions, but he also focuses on the civilians caught in between. Sites is an excellent writer, it feels as though he is sharing these stories with you personally instead of using the dry language often found in reports. He tells the reader about his struggles with events, his fears, his biases, even his troubles with his girlfriend. Instead of detracting from the writing, I feel that it enhances it.
The book also comes with a full length DVD that covers most of the events found in the book. I was close to tears at many parts, but actually seeing unarmed combatants being murdered, seeing dead children being pulled from bomb wreckage, hearing women tell about being raped and watching their children being murdered...
The American media often ignores these conflicts, regardless of their massive death tolls or the US's involvement. We're fighting a war in the Middle East and yet most people have no understanding of what's going on for either side. This is a travesty. It's important for books like this to be read and spread so that we can be responsible global citizens instead of turning our backs on the rest of the world simply because they're not on the same soil as us.
This book should be required reading. For everyone. At times this book was almost overwhelming. I was overwhelmed by the sheer weight of knowledge in conflicts I had only a superficial (or nonexistent) knowledge of, the weight of the violence and the destruction and the death contained in these pages. Kevin Sites is a journalist who joins Yahoo! and decides to cover a huge array of conflicts in only one year. There are detailed statistics on every country he visits in the appendixes, but the writing does a solid job of providing background for each area as well. He attempts to interview both sides of warring factions, but he also focuses on the civilians caught in between. Sites is an excellent writer, it feels as though he is sharing these stories with you personally instead of using the dry language often found in reports. He tells the reader about his struggles with events, his fears, his biases, even his troubles with his girlfriend. Instead of detracting from the writing, I feel that it enhances it.
The book also comes with a full length DVD that covers most of the events found in the book. I was close to tears at many parts, but actually seeing unarmed combatants being murdered, seeing dead children being pulled from bomb wreckage, hearing women tell about being raped and watching their children being murdered...
The American media often ignores these conflicts, regardless of their massive death tolls or the US's involvement. We're fighting a war in the Middle East and yet most people have no understanding of what's going on for either side. This is a travesty. It's important for books like this to be read and spread so that we can be responsible global citizens instead of turning our backs on the rest of the world simply because they're not on the same soil as us.
February 25, 2009
(copied from a blog entry i posted that was inspired by reading this book.)
"sometimes i have this big grand dreams of doing something really heroic to save the world. these dreams are always on the grand scale of working at an international level, or collaborating with international people/organizations.
well, i just started watching the complimentary dvd that came with this book. then i started thinking about why there are so many conflicts in the world. i wonder if perhaps a small part of the reason is the lack of people working on the small-scale. we see these conflicts after situations have spiraled way out of control, social structures have crumbled into anarchy, and people seem to have forgotten their humanity.
if there are people at the ground level who do their small part, like a volunteer at the local library who reads stories to little children, will they not start building a generation with at least a small memory of what good one person can do? if we have a solid base of people who have no high-flying desire to save the world, but work steadily for their little community, perhaps we will have many strong little communities around the world. surely we can save the world by working our way from the ground level.
surely the people on the ground are ever more important now. imagining for a moment the day that politicking eats itself up and dies out…
rather than go away to a “better” place, maybe we can make a better place right here. wouldn’t it be better to have many “better” places, rather than just one ideal place that everyone runs to after destroying their own? a sort of “wall-e”-inspired idea here.
i know, i’m not making a whole lot of sense right now, but these ideas are still very new and i’m just mulling over them.
i think my main idea is just this: every small good we do is worth something in the grand scheme of things, perhaps even more so than the big gestures."
"sometimes i have this big grand dreams of doing something really heroic to save the world. these dreams are always on the grand scale of working at an international level, or collaborating with international people/organizations.
well, i just started watching the complimentary dvd that came with this book. then i started thinking about why there are so many conflicts in the world. i wonder if perhaps a small part of the reason is the lack of people working on the small-scale. we see these conflicts after situations have spiraled way out of control, social structures have crumbled into anarchy, and people seem to have forgotten their humanity.
if there are people at the ground level who do their small part, like a volunteer at the local library who reads stories to little children, will they not start building a generation with at least a small memory of what good one person can do? if we have a solid base of people who have no high-flying desire to save the world, but work steadily for their little community, perhaps we will have many strong little communities around the world. surely we can save the world by working our way from the ground level.
surely the people on the ground are ever more important now. imagining for a moment the day that politicking eats itself up and dies out…
rather than go away to a “better” place, maybe we can make a better place right here. wouldn’t it be better to have many “better” places, rather than just one ideal place that everyone runs to after destroying their own? a sort of “wall-e”-inspired idea here.
i know, i’m not making a whole lot of sense right now, but these ideas are still very new and i’m just mulling over them.
i think my main idea is just this: every small good we do is worth something in the grand scheme of things, perhaps even more so than the big gestures."
November 26, 2007
"I hoped that when our national mourning was over, we, as American citizens, might feel a renewed sense of empathy because of this incident- one robust enough to transcend our national boundaries and inspire us to see the rest of the world."
"...I marvel at these strong women who have dressed in their best, most colorful clothes to meet us...These same wome, welcoming us with broad smiles and their rolling tongue chants, are forced to hide in the banana groves at night in fear of men bearing torches and guns who search them out."
"The story is about being loyal to the truth as a nation, that citizens of a democracy are collectively responsibile for what their troops do in war, good or bad. It's my job to make sure they see it all."
"Allahkarami lost two sons in the Iran-Iraq War, but makes a sweeping gesture across the rows of graves that have no names or photographs, the unknown martyrs.
'These are all my sons,' she says, which sounds to me like a very familiar sentiment."
"I like that. I believe that anything, a story, a novel or a piece of art, has a place for you in it. A place that is yours to decide."
"Some people have eyes but their hearts are blind."
"People are more than just the sum of their misery."
"Eight thousand skulls look back at you from empty eye sockets, asking you to see not just their deaths but also their lives. Once they laughed, dressed in clothes, ate breakfast, took shelter from the rain, made tea. It was these things they were robbed of and these things they seem to ask you to remember so that they are more than statistics of a heinous crime, more than skulls on a platform."
"I believe I could have been happy never to resurface, but eventually your air runs out and you have to come up."
"War poses as combat but is really collateral damage."
"...I marvel at these strong women who have dressed in their best, most colorful clothes to meet us...These same wome, welcoming us with broad smiles and their rolling tongue chants, are forced to hide in the banana groves at night in fear of men bearing torches and guns who search them out."
"The story is about being loyal to the truth as a nation, that citizens of a democracy are collectively responsibile for what their troops do in war, good or bad. It's my job to make sure they see it all."
"Allahkarami lost two sons in the Iran-Iraq War, but makes a sweeping gesture across the rows of graves that have no names or photographs, the unknown martyrs.
'These are all my sons,' she says, which sounds to me like a very familiar sentiment."
"I like that. I believe that anything, a story, a novel or a piece of art, has a place for you in it. A place that is yours to decide."
"Some people have eyes but their hearts are blind."
"People are more than just the sum of their misery."
"Eight thousand skulls look back at you from empty eye sockets, asking you to see not just their deaths but also their lives. Once they laughed, dressed in clothes, ate breakfast, took shelter from the rain, made tea. It was these things they were robbed of and these things they seem to ask you to remember so that they are more than statistics of a heinous crime, more than skulls on a platform."
"I believe I could have been happy never to resurface, but eventually your air runs out and you have to come up."
"War poses as combat but is really collateral damage."
February 22, 2008
I'm a news junkie, but even so, I'm always nagged by the knowledge that I'm only getting part of the story. I hadn't heard of journalist Kevin Sites' Hot Zone project until coming across this book, but the book served as an outstanding overview of his experiences on the project. This was nothing less than a monumenally worldview-expanding experience for me.
Sites says something near the end of the book to the effect that he's continually amazed by the seemingly willful ignorance of Americans when it comes to the unbelievable amount of conflict happening in the rest of the world; but I think it's not until we come face to face with something like this, of undeniably eye-opening value, that we are able to easily see past the smokescreen of palatability that gets wrapped around much of the information that is served to us here. It's oh so easy to just not go looking too hard beyond our borders.
If you're nagged, too, by that feeling that you're not getting the whole story, and if you're brave enough to let go of your willful ignorance and look a little harder, THIS is your next must-read.
Thank you, Kevin Sites. I can only imagine how very dark the world must often seem to you; but you are truly shedding and sharing The Light.
Sites says something near the end of the book to the effect that he's continually amazed by the seemingly willful ignorance of Americans when it comes to the unbelievable amount of conflict happening in the rest of the world; but I think it's not until we come face to face with something like this, of undeniably eye-opening value, that we are able to easily see past the smokescreen of palatability that gets wrapped around much of the information that is served to us here. It's oh so easy to just not go looking too hard beyond our borders.
If you're nagged, too, by that feeling that you're not getting the whole story, and if you're brave enough to let go of your willful ignorance and look a little harder, THIS is your next must-read.
Thank you, Kevin Sites. I can only imagine how very dark the world must often seem to you; but you are truly shedding and sharing The Light.
May 13, 2020
Twenty wars.!. One year. So, yes, my own families bias toward world events is showing. I had no idea. But yes, these are all still things I should have been aware of in 2006. An enlightening book to reread in 2020 during the Covid-19 worldwide Pandemic. Even now with the world on TV news nightly there are big blank spots in our awareness of the vulnerable spots in the world at large. What is going on in the rest of China, beyond Wuhan? How are the African countries coping or not with high Aids percentages, high poverty concentrations and huge income disparities? What is happening to help Grandmothers and almost orphaned grandchildren? What is being done right in all this chaos?
The comment by Kevin Sites about wars ultimate cost harming civilians irreparably - That is the point that most stays with me. The compounded tragedy of moral injury and physical losses in both combatants and non-combatants. We now wage war knowing at the outset that there will be significant loss of innocent lives. Unintended consequences? A nobel project.
The comment by Kevin Sites about wars ultimate cost harming civilians irreparably - That is the point that most stays with me. The compounded tragedy of moral injury and physical losses in both combatants and non-combatants. We now wage war knowing at the outset that there will be significant loss of innocent lives. Unintended consequences? A nobel project.
June 5, 2015
Based on content, this book is unrivaled. Looking in to multiple conflict zones gives readers a sense of how fortunate they are to live in safe countries, and shows a wide range of problems. The most interesting and eye opening fact is that, although this takes place from 2005-2006, the majority of the conflicted countries are in the same (or, in many, worse) state today.
With that being said, this book is almost unreadable due to the author's arrogant attitude. Any segment where he is not actively telling another's story is thoroughly saturated with his ego and the last chapter serves as a rant to anyone ignorant enough to not speak knowledgeably about lesser known conflicts.
In all, this book has fantastic material, and would have been far more engrossing if written by another journalist- although, as we are frequently reminded, it is only this author who has been brave/creative/ingenious enough to take this journey.
With that being said, this book is almost unreadable due to the author's arrogant attitude. Any segment where he is not actively telling another's story is thoroughly saturated with his ego and the last chapter serves as a rant to anyone ignorant enough to not speak knowledgeably about lesser known conflicts.
In all, this book has fantastic material, and would have been far more engrossing if written by another journalist- although, as we are frequently reminded, it is only this author who has been brave/creative/ingenious enough to take this journey.
October 24, 2017
Kevin Sites makes a round trip around the world to go to twenty different war zones and conflict zones in one year. During that trip, Kevin takes a camera to film what actually goes on “behind the scenes”, which makes the book never dull. Kevin reveals many ugly truths about the world today and does so in an extravagant fashion. Along the way, he visits tribes and the tragedies that they have been through also.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book because I liked reading about modern-day warfare. I found out many new things that go on during the action and even after it in the result of the war. Soldiers have to make decisions that may affect them for the rest of their lives.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book because I liked reading about modern-day warfare. I found out many new things that go on during the action and even after it in the result of the war. Soldiers have to make decisions that may affect them for the rest of their lives.
April 12, 2022
Amazing, amazing book. So well written that it is actually tragic. The author is brilliant and covers all aspects so that through his eyes and understanding, we know what we are dealing with and how incredibly stupid humankind actually is. The west (and Russia, for their part) is also not innocent and war crimes should bring them to their knees. I do hope this book highlights, as it did for me, the injustices and the prices paid. In blood. By lives. And by suffering of innocents. I am stunned and think the world should look into its atrocities to repair them.
July 8, 2019
This was a heavy one - where you could be just overwhelmed by the violence in the world. I think Sites did a great job at humanizing people who are dealing daily with something we only hear or read a couple sentences about in a news cycle. He ends with his own frustration at how these stories continue to recede to the back of our minds in the United States and I am left wondering how we could ever fix it.
January 22, 2008
Sites claims his book and blog are not "war porn," but I felt icky after skipping from Congo to Iraq to Sudan to Somalia in 100 pages. Lots of vignettes, very little context. His stories from Iraq are more compelling and personal, because he spent longer there reporting for the network news, but the globetrotting war blogging stuff is just shallow and sensational. He's also a pretty weak writer.
December 19, 2024
insightful book, i think it accomplished exactly what it intended to. it doesnt have the capacity to take you through every war zone in great detail, but instead, it offers compelling vignettes of each war zone and sheds light on the lives of those who live there. In the author's words, "the world becomes countries, the countries become people, the people become stories, the stories become understanding." His style of journalism is journalism that I can respect. I knew this book wouldnt be able to teach me everything about all these conflicts, but again, that wasn't its purpose... it just penetrated my bubble of american ignorance so that at least now i'm motivated to learn more.
another thing i really liked was the angle with which kevin sites approached the personal stories of civilians living in these war zones. too often, when there is an extraordinarily humble and graceful individual who overcomes great horrors, the account of their humility and gracefulness is almost made to discredit the horrors that came before....like, they become almost fetishized as an inspirational figure that we look to in order to feel better about the awful things that happened. kevin sites acknowledged this when he wrote "there's a danger that her heroism will eclipse her humanity. We'll bookmark her under 'inspiring tales' to reference when we need an anecdote about child abuse in Central Asia." so yeah idk, i just thought he did a great job of celebrating these inspiring civilians without undermining the broader evil, it is hard to find stories that strike the balance that he did.
Also, an incredible quote from a woman in Chechyna: "I had to learn a new vocabulary for a life comprised of doing things to survive." chilling.
another thing i really liked was the angle with which kevin sites approached the personal stories of civilians living in these war zones. too often, when there is an extraordinarily humble and graceful individual who overcomes great horrors, the account of their humility and gracefulness is almost made to discredit the horrors that came before....like, they become almost fetishized as an inspirational figure that we look to in order to feel better about the awful things that happened. kevin sites acknowledged this when he wrote "there's a danger that her heroism will eclipse her humanity. We'll bookmark her under 'inspiring tales' to reference when we need an anecdote about child abuse in Central Asia." so yeah idk, i just thought he did a great job of celebrating these inspiring civilians without undermining the broader evil, it is hard to find stories that strike the balance that he did.
Also, an incredible quote from a woman in Chechyna: "I had to learn a new vocabulary for a life comprised of doing things to survive." chilling.
April 11, 2022
Obviously this book was written quite a few years ago. But a world in conflict hasn’t changed, if anything the ‘Hot Zones’ mentioned in the book are still raging around the world. Kevin Sites is an adventurous journalist and his observations as one of the very first internet correspondents for Yahoo.
January 23, 2018
interesting, but also exhausting.
November 4, 2023
Each section was just too brief to feel impactful.
May 20, 2024
In trying to see it all, one sees nothing. His "What I Learned" blurb would have been a better focal point for his trench pen.
August 30, 2009
I really enjoyed the idea behind this book, but it's not without its problems. Sites' work brings to light many other "hot zones" throughout the world that do not receive the same press as places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Ultimately, he promotes an anti-war message by showing the pain and suffering war brings upon people. While I commend his approach, I falls short of executing it. His writing is very scattered and lacks a real flow. Granted, he began this project as a travel blog, so perhaps it worked better in that format than a series of subtitled entries thrown into one book. Additionally, while Sites attempts to bring to highlight lesser-known conflicts, he does not give equal attention to all of the conflicts he covers. His chapter on South America is extremely short and he discusses Haiti in less than 3 pages. Meanwhile, he makes multiple trips to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Lebanon. Clearly, Sites wants to focus on certain conflicts more than others (as do the media networks he criticizes). However, my biggest problem with Sites is his attempt to evoke emotion and sympathy from his readers while at the same time attempting to remain an unbiased journalist. For example, he wants us to feel the pain of land mine victims in order to see the devastating (and lasting) effects of war. But, when he comes upon a bombed out building and starts taking pictures of people in their grief and panic rather then help them; he wants us to understand that he's just doing his job. The one time he actually helps carry a injured woman to medical assistance, he's uncomfortable that he's seen doing this because journalists are not supposed to perform such acts. His writing is fairly emotionless, except for the view times he reflects on his own life, and this distracts from his overall goal to put a human face on war.
Ultimately, Sites goals seem to run counter to each other. He wants to be a journalist and remain unbiased, but the story he attempts to tell cannot be told from an unbiased point of view. Conveying pain and suffering involves emotion, not objectivity.
Ultimately, Sites goals seem to run counter to each other. He wants to be a journalist and remain unbiased, but the story he attempts to tell cannot be told from an unbiased point of view. Conveying pain and suffering involves emotion, not objectivity.
January 14, 2008
Getting through this book was difficult as it's one, long litany of the horrible things people are doing to one another all across the globe right this very minute. But I figured if Kevin Sites was tough enough to witness it all first hand while enduring jet lag and worse, well, I'd damn well be tough enough to at least read about it from the comfort of my own home.
It's not amazing writing, but it's good enough, and I was impressed with the scope of his project and how he struggled with his own ethics at times. I hope he takes a very long vacation.
Africa was the worst of it, of course. Followed closely by Iraq.
Which brings me to today's news: Our illustrious President today announced rather ominously that Iran is a global threat. He only has less than a year to get his invasion of Iran underway. What possible excuse is he going to trump up to get the support of the American people behind him this time? How is he going to convince us that it's imperative we slog into that quagmire with our flags waving? And how soon afterward will the draft be called?
I swear to the gods I will leave this country. Recipe for my exodus: Huckabee + invasion of Iran + Draft. It's either than or molotov cocktails hurled at the white house. I don't think that would be uncalled for, do you?
It's not amazing writing, but it's good enough, and I was impressed with the scope of his project and how he struggled with his own ethics at times. I hope he takes a very long vacation.
Africa was the worst of it, of course. Followed closely by Iraq.
Which brings me to today's news: Our illustrious President today announced rather ominously that Iran is a global threat. He only has less than a year to get his invasion of Iran underway. What possible excuse is he going to trump up to get the support of the American people behind him this time? How is he going to convince us that it's imperative we slog into that quagmire with our flags waving? And how soon afterward will the draft be called?
I swear to the gods I will leave this country. Recipe for my exodus: Huckabee + invasion of Iran + Draft. It's either than or molotov cocktails hurled at the white house. I don't think that would be uncalled for, do you?
April 11, 2010
An ambitious project - had to be to get people's attention. It didn't quite work out like the author wanted it to: there was no collective "Ah ha!" moment of the US public (I didn't even know about the project until I read this book). But for those of us who try to pay attention to things beyond sports or 24 on our flat screens, it is an effective brief summary of all major world conflicts at present; not necessarily the "When and why?", but the individual "Who?" stories (graphic in detail at times - something we are insulated from). A nice launch pad from which to research on your own. Also included is the complimentary documentary of interesting and never-before-seen footage. The style is not worth writing home about, but the content is. As long as we are human (until Christ comes back - hopefully before 2012 when the world ends) the world will be at war. Human frailties and faults like greed, hubris, sloth, I could keep going, will keep us going to get other people's oil and diamonds, back stab for a higher paying job, and be first in line at the traffic light. It's too bad countries don't teach their children honest history (no matter how much face is lost); it might help to lessen blind perpetuation. And this is obviously just one of the many global problems we've created for ourselves. "Some people have eyes but their hearts are blind" (Arabic saying).
February 20, 2009
This book chronicle's journalist Kevin Sites' journey around the world reporting on conflict zones for Yahoo! News. Sites became the first reporter hired by Yahoo! after he and a producer friend pitched the idea of the "Hot Zone" blog to Yahoo!. Sites had experience as a war-correspondent for CNN and NBC and wanted to explore the stories of people on the ground who were involved in these conflicts in an attempt to put a human face on each side of these wars. His method is notable, especially to me, because he approaches this task as a pioneer in Solo-Journalism: the act of gathering information, writing stories, shooting still and video photography and posting his reports individually, with help only from his contacts and fixers in the various countries and a support staff based in the States. The digital world makes this possible and Sites utilizes a laptop, digital SLR camera and video camera and a satellite phone to collect information and file his reports. I found this book particularly intriguing as I want to expand my career in the direction of becoming a "SoJo" and utilize the same type of workflow and process that Sites uses here. A very interesting read, indeed.
August 18, 2008
I cannot wait to read this book. This book is the result of Kevin Sites' journey over the course of a year to 20 different "Hot Zones" - areas in the world that are torn apart by conflict. I followed Sites and all of his stories on Yahoo and the stories that he brought to the world are so amazing. I love him, his writing, and the way he reminds us that the stories we read in the newspapers about "ethnic conflicts", or "Palestinian rebels", etc, etc, have real human faces and lives behind them.
*Update* I just started reading this book tonight and am already flying through it. This is a must read for anyone who cares about goes on in the world outside of the United States.
*I finished this book at the beach. It was great and I loved Sites' epilogue at the end. I admire his bravery and courage to go forward when he was at his breaking point. He pushed himself to get the human stories at the center of these conflicts, and he accomplished his mission. I hope that all who read this book will come away with a better understanding of both our world and humanity as a whole.
*Update* I just started reading this book tonight and am already flying through it. This is a must read for anyone who cares about goes on in the world outside of the United States.
*I finished this book at the beach. It was great and I loved Sites' epilogue at the end. I admire his bravery and courage to go forward when he was at his breaking point. He pushed himself to get the human stories at the center of these conflicts, and he accomplished his mission. I hope that all who read this book will come away with a better understanding of both our world and humanity as a whole.
March 28, 2012
3.5 stars
What a difficult read. This was an impulse check out from the library, wandering through the stacks and spotting the cover. The book is something way outside of my normal reading patterns so I decided to tackle it.
Sites is a very good writer. His stories are engaging and the details make you feel like you are in the midst of war. Constantly. Thanks to this book, I am now a little more aware of the affects of war on the noncombatant civilian. The chapter on Vietnam and Agent Orange and birth defects occurring EVEN TODAY was the most disturbing.
Here's the problem... what do I do know? The book presents no suggestions for getting involved. No suggestions for making a difference. I'm left with an overwhelming sense of despair and no hope for the future. What can I do to make life better for someone affected by war? What tiny piece can I do to help prevent future violence?
What a difficult read. This was an impulse check out from the library, wandering through the stacks and spotting the cover. The book is something way outside of my normal reading patterns so I decided to tackle it.
Sites is a very good writer. His stories are engaging and the details make you feel like you are in the midst of war. Constantly. Thanks to this book, I am now a little more aware of the affects of war on the noncombatant civilian. The chapter on Vietnam and Agent Orange and birth defects occurring EVEN TODAY was the most disturbing.
Here's the problem... what do I do know? The book presents no suggestions for getting involved. No suggestions for making a difference. I'm left with an overwhelming sense of despair and no hope for the future. What can I do to make life better for someone affected by war? What tiny piece can I do to help prevent future violence?
June 3, 2013
I picked this up because I learned that the author is the younger brother of Tim Sites, with whom I went to high school. It is remarkable to me to read this and think about how Kevin grew up in the safety of that same small-town Geneva, Ohio as me, but chose to make a career out of visiting and writing about the front lines of the some of the worst war-torn human misery possible. The project, twenty wars in one year, at first seemed likely to diminish the significance of each specific conflict, but in the end also captures the shared tragedy among them--and the toll that it took on Kevin Sites to act as a witness to that suffering. If one were to read nothing else, one should at least read his letter to the Marines after the broadcast of his film of a post-battle shooting in a mosque in Fallujah. http://www.nbcnews.com/id/6556034/ns/...
August 3, 2013
"[U.S. citizens] have unparalleled access to information, yet on the most important matters of our responsibility as global citizens, we live in information poverty. America is a third-world nation in its per capita knowledge of the people, issues and events outside its borders" (p. 285).
Tracing his path along a one-year chronicling of the world's most disastrous places, this book is a nice time capsule to the recent past (2005-6). I wish there was an ongoing project, besides something like Human Rights Watch's 800+ page annual reports, that could reach a wide audience and wake up Americans to the human stories within the worst places on earth, so that strong actions could be taken to lessen the destruction of wanton wars, hinder the eruption of genocides, and help those tens of millions suffering from collateral damage of both human and natural catastrophes.
Tracing his path along a one-year chronicling of the world's most disastrous places, this book is a nice time capsule to the recent past (2005-6). I wish there was an ongoing project, besides something like Human Rights Watch's 800+ page annual reports, that could reach a wide audience and wake up Americans to the human stories within the worst places on earth, so that strong actions could be taken to lessen the destruction of wanton wars, hinder the eruption of genocides, and help those tens of millions suffering from collateral damage of both human and natural catastrophes.
November 5, 2007
I first heard of Kevin Sites when he came to give a talk to a journalism class at my school, which I crashed. What he attempted to do was amazing, and I was very glad to find this book at the airport bookshop while I was waiting for my flight. This book, though billed as "current events" is more of a memoir. He gives the basic history of each of the conflict zones he covers, but what he does that is more valuable, in my opinion, is give a human face to the conflict. He tells the stories of those affected by these wars: the innocent bystanders, the soldiers, and the victims. I wish he could have given more depth to each but it was a necessary weakness when he was only in each area for a few short weeks.
December 30, 2012
Another 299 iBooks blue plate special, although sites is apparently aware of dollar for word count reviwers such as me, padding his book with blank pages between every dispatch. So maybe we actually only get 300 pages? Oh well, still a penny a page. And you get exactly what is described one year, twenty disaster zones, plenty of human suffering delved in bite sized chunks
Sites is the guy who videoed the falluja/marines mosque incident. I almost believe his self-recriminations....
In a madhouse world, twenty war zones with plenty of landmine victims, paramilitaries, a few close brushes (not many). Is sites a merchant of human misery? An idealist to journalism's best values? Or just a decent writer. I dunno. Anyway... Next....
Sites is the guy who videoed the falluja/marines mosque incident. I almost believe his self-recriminations....
In a madhouse world, twenty war zones with plenty of landmine victims, paramilitaries, a few close brushes (not many). Is sites a merchant of human misery? An idealist to journalism's best values? Or just a decent writer. I dunno. Anyway... Next....
December 28, 2007
Catapulted to fame as Yahoo's first correspondent Kevin Sites is a brave solo journalist. His most famous story occurred during an embed with the 3.1 Marine Unit where he filmed the execution of an unarmed Arab following a Mosque raid. Additionally the book is a good follow up to stories reported on the "hot zone."
The included DVD is a great companion to the book. American media failed to show the actual shooting but the DVD shows the controversial Mosque shooting unedited. It additionally included instances when military units were willing but reluctant to execute others when the camera was rolling.
The included DVD is a great companion to the book. American media failed to show the actual shooting but the DVD shows the controversial Mosque shooting unedited. It additionally included instances when military units were willing but reluctant to execute others when the camera was rolling.
July 7, 2008
If I had the money-I would buy this book for everyone. It is the most insightful/horrific/humanizing book I have read about the current events in the world. It doesnt sugar coat the events that unfold for one individual. I like what Sites has to say about the news profession and how it complicates and muddles they grey area of war. He made a statement about the availablitly of knowing news from around the world that I found profound--the US is like a thrid world country when we want to access news about other countries. I find that to be true and could never put it so clearly.
I recommend this book to anyone who would like to know, first hand, what is going on outside the US.
I recommend this book to anyone who would like to know, first hand, what is going on outside the US.
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