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On All Fronts: The Education of a Journalist
“On All The Education of a Journalist beautifully outlines . . . what it means to seek the truth. It gave me a new faith in the power of reporting.” —Oprah Winfrey
The recipient of multiple Peabody and Murrow awards, Clarissa Ward is a world-renowned conflict reporter. In this strange age of crisis where there really is no front line, she has moved from one hot zone to the next. With multiple assignments in Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, and Afghanistan, Ward, who speaks seven languages, has been based in Baghdad, Beirut, Beijing, and Moscow. She has seen and documented the violent remaking of the world at close range. With her deep empathy, Ward finds a way to tell the hardest stories. On All Fronts is the riveting account of Ward’s singular career and of journalism in this age of extremism.
Following a privileged but lonely childhood, Ward found her calling as an international war correspondent in the aftermath of 9/11. From her early days in the field, she was embedding with marines at the height of the Iraq War and reporting from the center of Israel’s war with Hezbollah. Soon she was soon on assignment all over the globe. From her multiple stints entrenched with Syrian rebels to her deep investigations into the Western extremists who are drawn to ISIS, Ward covered Bashar al-Assad’s reign of terror without fear and with courage and compassion. In 2018, Ward rose to new heights at CNN and became a mother. Suddenly, she was doing this hardest of jobs with a whole new perspective.
On All Fronts is the unforgettable story of one extraordinary journalist—and of a changing world.
The recipient of multiple Peabody and Murrow awards, Clarissa Ward is a world-renowned conflict reporter. In this strange age of crisis where there really is no front line, she has moved from one hot zone to the next. With multiple assignments in Syria, Gaza, Ukraine, and Afghanistan, Ward, who speaks seven languages, has been based in Baghdad, Beirut, Beijing, and Moscow. She has seen and documented the violent remaking of the world at close range. With her deep empathy, Ward finds a way to tell the hardest stories. On All Fronts is the riveting account of Ward’s singular career and of journalism in this age of extremism.
Following a privileged but lonely childhood, Ward found her calling as an international war correspondent in the aftermath of 9/11. From her early days in the field, she was embedding with marines at the height of the Iraq War and reporting from the center of Israel’s war with Hezbollah. Soon she was soon on assignment all over the globe. From her multiple stints entrenched with Syrian rebels to her deep investigations into the Western extremists who are drawn to ISIS, Ward covered Bashar al-Assad’s reign of terror without fear and with courage and compassion. In 2018, Ward rose to new heights at CNN and became a mother. Suddenly, she was doing this hardest of jobs with a whole new perspective.
On All Fronts is the unforgettable story of one extraordinary journalist—and of a changing world.
368 pages, Paperback
First published September 8, 2020
525 people are currently reading
7886 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 496 reviews
September 21, 2020
Not so long ago, I heard part of an interview with Clarissa Ward on NPR, promoting this book. What caught me was the last bit of it. At the end of the interview, Clarissa mentioned the difference she felt in reporting the news from areas of the world that are war-torn or ravaged by a natural disaster now that she has two young children. The depth of the suffering of children had been difficult before she became a mother, was more difficult when she had her first child and was almost unbearable after the second. I worried instantly that some might take that as a weakness in a woman as a reporter and thus transferred to those women in leadership positions. She quickly followed it up, with a position that I have always felt strongly in my heart - if more women were in powerful positions the landscape of world policy and therefore it's conflicts, would look much different.
On All Fronts, covers Clarissa's first 15 years as an international correspondent in this very moving memoir. The honesty and insightfulness to her accounts include her coverage from Russia, Japan, China, Bangladesh, Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan and pay tribute to the people and situations across the globe that she has covered. At times, my heart was so very heavy, acknowledging the lives and outcomes for real people including Clarissa. A trigger warning is advised, but there is so much suffering throughout the world Clarissa covers, which trigger warning to advise it hard to create. Even so, reading her account is clear and important for all of us to experience the simplicity of being human, despite our culture or demographic.
A vulnerable, honest memoir. This is on my must-read list of 2020.
On All Fronts, covers Clarissa's first 15 years as an international correspondent in this very moving memoir. The honesty and insightfulness to her accounts include her coverage from Russia, Japan, China, Bangladesh, Syria, Yemen, and Afghanistan and pay tribute to the people and situations across the globe that she has covered. At times, my heart was so very heavy, acknowledging the lives and outcomes for real people including Clarissa. A trigger warning is advised, but there is so much suffering throughout the world Clarissa covers, which trigger warning to advise it hard to create. Even so, reading her account is clear and important for all of us to experience the simplicity of being human, despite our culture or demographic.
A vulnerable, honest memoir. This is on my must-read list of 2020.
September 20, 2020
I’m starting my first post-grad job at CNN’s D.C. bureau in less than a month. While prepping to move to the District I have experienced plenty of first-job jitters and more than a few moments of imposter syndrome. However, reading this book has reminded me why I want to pursue journalism, and has imbued me with a newfound sense of passion and confidence in my decision to do so.
May 5, 2025
On All Fronts was great! This is Clarissa Ward’s memoir, fittingly subtitled “the education of a journalist.”
I didn’t know who Clarissa Ward was before learning about this book but I enjoyed hearing her story, from an admittedly privileged upbringing in the U.S and UK, to her persistence in requesting reporting positions on the frontlines as she pursued her career in journalism.
Clarissa has covered major global events from Iraq to Syria to Afghanistan and Beijing. These experiences were eye-opening for her, and interesting to learn about as a reader. Throughout her career, Clarissa has stayed committed to sharing humanity during times of crisis. I enjoyed hearing her story, which she narrates directly in the On All Fronts audiobook.
I didn’t know who Clarissa Ward was before learning about this book but I enjoyed hearing her story, from an admittedly privileged upbringing in the U.S and UK, to her persistence in requesting reporting positions on the frontlines as she pursued her career in journalism.
Clarissa has covered major global events from Iraq to Syria to Afghanistan and Beijing. These experiences were eye-opening for her, and interesting to learn about as a reader. Throughout her career, Clarissa has stayed committed to sharing humanity during times of crisis. I enjoyed hearing her story, which she narrates directly in the On All Fronts audiobook.
December 15, 2020
War is hell for those who fight and definitely for civilian populations caught in the crosshairs. War correspondents, who are embedded with troops, have their own versions of hell, which Clarissa Ward writes about in her autobiography and chronicle of what it is like to be a broadcast journalist reporting from the world’s nastiest streets. If you think of any wars, conflicts, natural disasters that have occurred over the past 19 years, Clarissa Ward has been there to report on them: in parts of Africa, Afghanistan, Burma, China, Egypt, Gaza, Greenland, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Russia, Syria, and other places. The journalists, who report from these hotspots, have an innate sense of adventure that is combined with a desire to bear witness to what is going on. Broadcast reporting might look exciting and even glamorous, but it is dangerous and challenging to do well.
In Ward’s disjointed childhood, her mother and paternal grandmother were early influences. Both of these women were brilliant, formidable and many times made outrageous, discomforting comments to the young girl. She quotes them, and both women were wickedly funny and insightful, but not very grounded in giving young Clarissa any solid thoughts about her future. With a scattering of interests about what to do, the 9/11 attacks brought her life into focus.
Ward’s sense of drive is like the creed of the U.S. Postal Service, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” nothing has stopped Ward from heading into difficult places: not guns, bombs, sexist exclusion, her pregnancy, warnings from experts, and government restrictions. Her fluency in several languages (French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese) has been an asset. Ward’s eagerness to learn more languages has always been important in order to communicate directly with people in other countries. Hard-won experiences and skills have been invaluable in getting breaking news and giving all of us unique perspectives about world events.
Candid about her successes as well as some of her more foolish actions, Ward takes us into meetings and discussions with news agencies (she has worked for several major ones), administrators, government officials and their lackeys, and also presents the emotional and physical ups and downs of her personal life as affected by her job. Being a wife and mother has somewhat changed her priorities, but not her “ … quest to act as a translator between worlds …to remind the viewer that beyond the geopolitics of power and the brutality of war and the clashes of cultures, people are people.” The changes in her personal life have quite possibly brought a new urgency to her work.
Clarissa Ward’s book shines a light on women journalists who choose and pursue assignments in hotspots of the world. This book, and Lynsey Addario’s It’s what I do: a photographer’s life of love and war are excellent choices for book clubs and discussions about international freedom of the press and gender equality for journalists.
Reviewed by Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & Fiction
In Ward’s disjointed childhood, her mother and paternal grandmother were early influences. Both of these women were brilliant, formidable and many times made outrageous, discomforting comments to the young girl. She quotes them, and both women were wickedly funny and insightful, but not very grounded in giving young Clarissa any solid thoughts about her future. With a scattering of interests about what to do, the 9/11 attacks brought her life into focus.
Ward’s sense of drive is like the creed of the U.S. Postal Service, "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” nothing has stopped Ward from heading into difficult places: not guns, bombs, sexist exclusion, her pregnancy, warnings from experts, and government restrictions. Her fluency in several languages (French, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese) has been an asset. Ward’s eagerness to learn more languages has always been important in order to communicate directly with people in other countries. Hard-won experiences and skills have been invaluable in getting breaking news and giving all of us unique perspectives about world events.
Candid about her successes as well as some of her more foolish actions, Ward takes us into meetings and discussions with news agencies (she has worked for several major ones), administrators, government officials and their lackeys, and also presents the emotional and physical ups and downs of her personal life as affected by her job. Being a wife and mother has somewhat changed her priorities, but not her “ … quest to act as a translator between worlds …to remind the viewer that beyond the geopolitics of power and the brutality of war and the clashes of cultures, people are people.” The changes in her personal life have quite possibly brought a new urgency to her work.
Clarissa Ward’s book shines a light on women journalists who choose and pursue assignments in hotspots of the world. This book, and Lynsey Addario’s It’s what I do: a photographer’s life of love and war are excellent choices for book clubs and discussions about international freedom of the press and gender equality for journalists.
Reviewed by Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & Fiction
September 19, 2021
This was quite amazing to read about (or listen to, in my case). But also depressing. The state of the world in most of the areas she goes to does not fill me with hope. I do like that she brings the human element to many of the situations happening and gets to know the people.
Content: some strong language; descriptions of disturbing elements of war and terrorism (though there were some she didn't explain in graphic detail, which I was glad about)
2021 challenge: a book set in multiple countries (Syria, China, Iraq, Japan and more)
Content: some strong language; descriptions of disturbing elements of war and terrorism (though there were some she didn't explain in graphic detail, which I was glad about)
2021 challenge: a book set in multiple countries (Syria, China, Iraq, Japan and more)
July 4, 2022
This is international journalist Clarissa Ward's memoir, bridging her personal and professional lives. She first came to my attention when I watched her reporting live from Afghanistan in 2021, when the U.S. was withdrawing militarily from that country and it was in chaos. "Who was this remarkable woman?" I wondered. Ward was so composed, clear and empathetic, while bravely navigating and showing us a terrifying situation.
As Ward explains in her memoir, watching the events of 9/11 unfold motivated her to become a journalist. She saw that there was so much misunderstanding between what Osama Bin Ladin and his followers thought of the U.S. AND similarly, how we in the West thought about them. Ward wanted to report on average people who get caught up in world events, such as wars and natural disasters. She desired to help the public better understand the complexities of their situations. Ward chose television as her medium. Her proficiency with foreign languages certainly helped her. She was already fluent in several and soon started learning Arabic.
At first, Ward was taught classical Arabic. She wrote, "Later on, my Arabic vocabulary would move in a very different direction. I would learn essential words like:
shazaya: shrapnel
sarookh: rocket
quinbula: bomb
is-haal: diarrhea"
She would also learn to dress in traditional Muslim women's garb when situations called for it. As a white woman with blonde hair, Ward could be a target for being hurt or kidnapped. So much of this, Ward did not learn in school. Each and every experience in the field taught her what she needed to know in order to be effective and safe while reporting in high conflict areas.
The book is filled with the pivotal experiences which educated and profoundly touched her. It is Ward's day to day encounters with average people which so impressed me while reading her book. I enjoyed the photographs showing the people that Ward wrote about. Along the way, I learned a lot about the world's war-torn areas in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Through reading this, I got glimpses of Ward's personality. She is bright, unconventional, thoughtful and gutsy. She is unafraid to speak her mind and can swear with the best of them. I liked her ability to connect personally with strangers. She ventures to places where most of us are afraid to go. We are fortunate that Ward continues to do the work that she does so well.
Ward closed her book by writing, "How many times I [have] been reminded... that there is a shared human experience, no matter how different our societies, that connects us. Perhaps that is why I continue to feel such passion for my work... [I want] to humanize, to make real what is surreal and foreign, to remind the viewer that beyond the geopolitics of power and the brutality of war and the clashes of culture, people are people."
As Ward explains in her memoir, watching the events of 9/11 unfold motivated her to become a journalist. She saw that there was so much misunderstanding between what Osama Bin Ladin and his followers thought of the U.S. AND similarly, how we in the West thought about them. Ward wanted to report on average people who get caught up in world events, such as wars and natural disasters. She desired to help the public better understand the complexities of their situations. Ward chose television as her medium. Her proficiency with foreign languages certainly helped her. She was already fluent in several and soon started learning Arabic.
At first, Ward was taught classical Arabic. She wrote, "Later on, my Arabic vocabulary would move in a very different direction. I would learn essential words like:
shazaya: shrapnel
sarookh: rocket
quinbula: bomb
is-haal: diarrhea"
She would also learn to dress in traditional Muslim women's garb when situations called for it. As a white woman with blonde hair, Ward could be a target for being hurt or kidnapped. So much of this, Ward did not learn in school. Each and every experience in the field taught her what she needed to know in order to be effective and safe while reporting in high conflict areas.
The book is filled with the pivotal experiences which educated and profoundly touched her. It is Ward's day to day encounters with average people which so impressed me while reading her book. I enjoyed the photographs showing the people that Ward wrote about. Along the way, I learned a lot about the world's war-torn areas in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq.
Through reading this, I got glimpses of Ward's personality. She is bright, unconventional, thoughtful and gutsy. She is unafraid to speak her mind and can swear with the best of them. I liked her ability to connect personally with strangers. She ventures to places where most of us are afraid to go. We are fortunate that Ward continues to do the work that she does so well.
Ward closed her book by writing, "How many times I [have] been reminded... that there is a shared human experience, no matter how different our societies, that connects us. Perhaps that is why I continue to feel such passion for my work... [I want] to humanize, to make real what is surreal and foreign, to remind the viewer that beyond the geopolitics of power and the brutality of war and the clashes of culture, people are people."
September 17, 2021
I came across Clarissa during her coverage of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan after the US withdrawal. I was blown away by seeing this skinny blonde woman holding her ground with Taliban leaders, pushing her way through crowds and giving well-balanced and human accounts of the events.
She is in many ways remarkable, and her book reads like a fast-paced thriller which I flew through in 3 days. One unbelievable story follows another as she goes in and out of dangerous situations. Punctuated by personal stories in her safe home country, family relations, and politics of news channels, she covers a lot of ground in a few pages. She is incredibly brave, a thrill-seeker, and squeezes a maximum out of life and the stories within it. She is also skilled, worldly, resilient, determined, and just intense. And I’m all for intensity!
Despite all this I can’t help but feel like I’m missing a few important things to make this book truly outstanding. She glosses over very complex topics and describes everything in a “journalistic” factual way (not surprising perhaps). You feel like you get the pictures of an action thriller, but you don’t understand why the characters act the way they do, how they got there, how they really think and how they tick.
She describes a lot of hardship, but doesn’t draw comparisons (is the hardship experienced by the Japanese after the tsunami different from the hardship experienced by Syrians? Is it all same same? Tell me Clarissa, tell me!!). Why did the Taliban agree to talk to you? What did they want out of it? What really drives you to do all this? Is it just the thrill, the adrenaline? Is it seeking truth? But what truth? Do you want to move things in the world? Any thoughts about how to fix things? Why it’s so messed up in so many places but not others?
I can’t help but think that Clarissa has a lot more to give and talk about, but it would need for her to take off her Journalist hat and give her own opinions. I like how good she is at journalism, keeping it factual, finding truth, but as a writer she has more to give.
So Clarissa, let’s make a deal: Either we have dinner and talk about the things you didn’t write, or you write a second book^^
She is in many ways remarkable, and her book reads like a fast-paced thriller which I flew through in 3 days. One unbelievable story follows another as she goes in and out of dangerous situations. Punctuated by personal stories in her safe home country, family relations, and politics of news channels, she covers a lot of ground in a few pages. She is incredibly brave, a thrill-seeker, and squeezes a maximum out of life and the stories within it. She is also skilled, worldly, resilient, determined, and just intense. And I’m all for intensity!
Despite all this I can’t help but feel like I’m missing a few important things to make this book truly outstanding. She glosses over very complex topics and describes everything in a “journalistic” factual way (not surprising perhaps). You feel like you get the pictures of an action thriller, but you don’t understand why the characters act the way they do, how they got there, how they really think and how they tick.
She describes a lot of hardship, but doesn’t draw comparisons (is the hardship experienced by the Japanese after the tsunami different from the hardship experienced by Syrians? Is it all same same? Tell me Clarissa, tell me!!). Why did the Taliban agree to talk to you? What did they want out of it? What really drives you to do all this? Is it just the thrill, the adrenaline? Is it seeking truth? But what truth? Do you want to move things in the world? Any thoughts about how to fix things? Why it’s so messed up in so many places but not others?
I can’t help but think that Clarissa has a lot more to give and talk about, but it would need for her to take off her Journalist hat and give her own opinions. I like how good she is at journalism, keeping it factual, finding truth, but as a writer she has more to give.
So Clarissa, let’s make a deal: Either we have dinner and talk about the things you didn’t write, or you write a second book^^
November 25, 2020
A fascinating and riveting account of Clarissa Ward’s life and work. I couldn’t put this book down! I really liked how the narrative mixed her personal experiences in the Middle East with analysis of the crises taking place there. I was also wowed by what she and her producers had to do behind-the-scenes to report from some of the most dangerous places in the world, such as having smugglers bring them from Turkey into rebel-held Syria or coordinating clandestine meetings with the Taliban.
May 17, 2021
“The idea of ‘making a difference’ in journalism is as seductive as it is dangerous....we are not there to solve the problem, we are there to illuminate it.”
Clarissa Ward is chief international correspondent for CNN and this is her memoir charting her life (including her childhood and pathway to a career in journalism) and her experiences as a reporter in conflict zones around the world, from Russia to Baghdad, from Myanmar to Syria and more.
Fiercely intelligent and empathetic, boldly courageous, an accomplished linguist (she speaks six foreign languages fluently), Ward is so impressive and very likeable. She humanises the reality of war and war reporting, reminding us all the time that no matter where you go in the world, no matter the political regime or creed, people are people.
The chapters on Syria in particular, are a poignant reminder of the devastation wrought there that continues to impact its citizens while Assad holds on to power.
The book is a near perfect blend of her personal experiences and the challenges involved in reporting (eg being smuggled across the border from Turkey into Syria), together with her commentary on the applicable geopolitics.
A fascinating book that ticks along at a great pace, I was left wanting more. It felt like a timely read given the current escalating conflict in Gaza. 4.5/5 ⭐️
I listened to this on audiobook on @BorrowBox via @librariesireland. Clarissa narrates the book herself and has a really engaging and entertaining speaking voice. It’s just under 10 hours long.
Clarissa Ward is chief international correspondent for CNN and this is her memoir charting her life (including her childhood and pathway to a career in journalism) and her experiences as a reporter in conflict zones around the world, from Russia to Baghdad, from Myanmar to Syria and more.
Fiercely intelligent and empathetic, boldly courageous, an accomplished linguist (she speaks six foreign languages fluently), Ward is so impressive and very likeable. She humanises the reality of war and war reporting, reminding us all the time that no matter where you go in the world, no matter the political regime or creed, people are people.
The chapters on Syria in particular, are a poignant reminder of the devastation wrought there that continues to impact its citizens while Assad holds on to power.
The book is a near perfect blend of her personal experiences and the challenges involved in reporting (eg being smuggled across the border from Turkey into Syria), together with her commentary on the applicable geopolitics.
A fascinating book that ticks along at a great pace, I was left wanting more. It felt like a timely read given the current escalating conflict in Gaza. 4.5/5 ⭐️
I listened to this on audiobook on @BorrowBox via @librariesireland. Clarissa narrates the book herself and has a really engaging and entertaining speaking voice. It’s just under 10 hours long.
January 15, 2022
This is excellent on audio with Clarissa narrating her own story. I learned so much about Syria that I didn't know prior to listening to this. I have since went online and watched several of Clarissa's stories that she mentions in the book. They are all eye opening and heartbreaking. They remind me of how incredibly privileged we are in this country.
December 14, 2022
Months after reading this I'm still unsure where the disconnect was for me when reading this. I wanted to like it, but there was something that really bugged me while reading this book. I've been unable to put my finger on it, but there was this irksome feeling I had while reading 'On All Fronts' that really didn't feel right. Maybe it was because after reading about Marie Colvin prior to picking up 'On All Fronts' this book paled in comparison to me.
I think the immense privilege and affluence Ward came from was grating to me when she's hailed as a hero and courageous while Arab women journalists on the frontlines of their own countries are disregarded and have their murders covered up by Western powers and media. It felt like there was a lot of ego coming off the page at times that was really off-putting as well. I cannot articulate what it is that really made this book disagreeable to me; I have the greatest respect for journalists risking their lives and freedom all over the world to tell the truth, especially women, but something about 'On All Fronts' felt hollow and impersonal to me. Maybe it's the way the book was written that felt like it didn't truly come from the heart. I don't know.
I think the immense privilege and affluence Ward came from was grating to me when she's hailed as a hero and courageous while Arab women journalists on the frontlines of their own countries are disregarded and have their murders covered up by Western powers and media. It felt like there was a lot of ego coming off the page at times that was really off-putting as well. I cannot articulate what it is that really made this book disagreeable to me; I have the greatest respect for journalists risking their lives and freedom all over the world to tell the truth, especially women, but something about 'On All Fronts' felt hollow and impersonal to me. Maybe it's the way the book was written that felt like it didn't truly come from the heart. I don't know.
February 24, 2021
With an almost reckless disregard for her personal safety, Clarissa Ward has been covering news stories in dangerous places since 2003. At times harrowing, at times touching, her memoir of her life in journalism is a gripping and unforgettable read.
May 20, 2022
'War is Hell.' Oorlogscorrespondenten hebben hun eigen versies van de hel, en hier schrijft Clarissa Ward openhartig over. In 'On All Fronts' behandelt ze haar eerste vijftien jaar als internationale correspondent. De eerlijkheid, oprechtheid en inzichtelijkheid van haar verslagen omvatten haar berichtgeving vanuit o.a. Syrië, Jemen, Afghanistan, Rusland, Japan, China,Bangladesh, en brengen hulde aan de mensen en situaties over de hele wereld die ze heeft behandeld. Ze laat zien dat je als vrouw correspondent kunt zijn, evenals moeder. En dat we nooit onze menselijkheid moeten verliezen. Al helemaal niet als journalist.
Mijn enige kritiekpunt is dat ik bij de eerste helft van dit boek dacht dat het beter wat geweest als iemand anders haar biografie schreef. Je laat natuurlijk wel de beste versie van jezelf zien in een biografie. En soms was ik sceptisch of ze wel begreep wat voor privileges ze heeft (gehad in haar jeugd om correspondent te worden). Maar in de tweede helft van dit boek veranderde mijn blik hierop.
“The idea of ‘making a difference’ in journalism is as seductive as it is dangerous....we are not there to solve the problem, we are there to illuminate it.”
Mijn enige kritiekpunt is dat ik bij de eerste helft van dit boek dacht dat het beter wat geweest als iemand anders haar biografie schreef. Je laat natuurlijk wel de beste versie van jezelf zien in een biografie. En soms was ik sceptisch of ze wel begreep wat voor privileges ze heeft (gehad in haar jeugd om correspondent te worden). Maar in de tweede helft van dit boek veranderde mijn blik hierop.
“The idea of ‘making a difference’ in journalism is as seductive as it is dangerous....we are not there to solve the problem, we are there to illuminate it.”
August 19, 2025
Objectively, this was an interesting read but I took a lot of issue with the way the author talked about the places on which she reported. While I greatly appreciate and admire the work and courage of journalists like Clarissa Ward, I felt extremely uncomfortable with the way she talked about how “exhilarating” and “addictive” it was to report from active war zones. It felt insensitive to speak about war torn Syria and Iraq as just exciting and unique places to be out on assignment when the wars she was so thrilled to report on are destroying the lives of the millions of people who live there. And, of course, Ward, though she often found herself in precarious situations, had the privilege to leave war zones and return to her safe home when things got too dangerous.
I did like how she was very clear about how the US provided funding and weapons to a lot of the terror groups it claimed to want to eradicate, but I think she could have pushed further with the implications of US and Western support.
I did like how she was very clear about how the US provided funding and weapons to a lot of the terror groups it claimed to want to eradicate, but I think she could have pushed further with the implications of US and Western support.
December 18, 2024
تقدم المراسلة الصحفية كلاريسا وارد تجربتها في تغطية الحروب في سوريا والعراق وهي تتقن اللغات الروسية والعربية.
May 28, 2024
i think she could’ve wrote 300 additional pages, and i would’ve read them all
May 19, 2022
Everyone has a book or a set of books they will recommend to anyone and everyone and quite frankly I’ve never had a book added to my version of that list so quickly.
This is a book where my thoughts/review cannot do the book justice in the slightest, so just read the book please. This has also been one of the most difficult books to articulate what I’ve been feeling throughout this book, and I’ve never spent so much time on a review.
The book is fantastically well written. Clarissa brings a whole new light to issues and places that have been shown usually one dimensionally. Often times you only see places like Syria and Afghanistan through an edited perspective through news channels and news articles that have been thoroughly edited to appeal to a wider range of people usually in America and European that cannot truly encapsulate the feeling of the people living there or the impacts of a conflict on every aspect of their society. Her book brings a whole new perspective to all of the interactions with the people and the culture in the places that she’s reported on that didn’t make it into those news articles and the little clips that make it onto either 60 minutes or onto the television news networks. It’s such a raw and real look at all these places that a lot of people have only seen through a specific lens that has been filtered for us.
She gives us a really unique lens to look through a lot of the hidden aspects of journalism that are not shown to the public. Things like the waiting that happens, and how reliant they are on people from the country she’s going to be at to aid her and her team with providing translators and places to house them, and sometimes needing people to smuggle her across borders if necessary. She also describes the interactions that she has with all these men, women, and children, and the connections that she makes with them. She encapsulates how pure and raw a lot of those connections are to the point that how she has left places and becomes absolutely depressed and anxious because of the connection she feel to these places.
I think one of the most interesting aspects of this book was reading about all the time and effort that she puts into learning about the places she’s going. Reading about the tutors that she finds and enlists when she arrives to learn a language like Arabic while she’s working and living in the Middle East and all the other things she does to fully immersed herself into the place where she’s going to be. She had read and references multiple versions of the Quran during her assignments in the Middle East and she continues to educate herself on the language, the culture, the religion, and the customs of the place she’s going to be at so she knows how to speak and connect to people she will be talking to.
Another absolutely fascinating aspect of the book was how she got into and out of a lot of the countries she was at. There were times where she was the only one who could obtain a work visa or she didn’t even obtain a work visa and had to be smuggled over a border so she could have these interviews and report on these places. You learn about the process of getting the footage that she was able to get and how a lot of the time her reporting and set up had to be makeshift because of the suddenness of the interaction or the paranoia of the people she was interviewing. You learn the backstory to how she got a lot of the footage that won her awards like her two Emmy’s for her work in Syria with Ben Plesser.
The perspective of her memoirs shifts when she finds out she’s pregnant. She is so open and raw about how her perspective changed as she soon as she found out she was pregnant and how that affected her reporting. She would continue to go into countries and interview people throughout her pregnancy, and she describes how her maternal instinct really jumped out during these times and how bring a mother really shifted her thoughts and how she went around as a reporter.
I love the rawness of this memoir. It describes and shows the highs and lows of her life, of journalism, and of specific assignments. She acknowledges some of the mistakes she’s made and the mental and physical toll that being a conflict reporter has on a person. It provides you with advice for if you were ever in a similar situation that she has been in without the advice being forced. She has a way with her words that make you feel like you are going through her memories with her and you feel like you can see the emotion on her face while she is writing each section. Some of the quotes she included from civilian interviews in and around war zones are absolutely haunting. I love how she didn’t shy away from talking about her experiences as a woman in war zones, in Russia, as a journalist, and how much misogyny she faced from the people she worked with and interviewed and from the countries she was in. Overall this book feels like you are having a conversation with her, like you are sitting across from her as she is flipping through a photo album of the photos included in the book and talking about them with you. You feel every emotion she had and you get to experience a side of journalism that addictive and heartbreaking.
I think it’s also important to explain why I was drawn to her memoir and why this book had such an impact on me. First and foremost it’s because I’ve always been interested, and aware, of the lives of journalists. My aunt worked for years as a reporter for CNN and then left to do work for other international organizations. I constantly bugged her for stories of her trips abroad during her time at CNN, as well as her later years, when she visited the Middle East, Russia, west Africa, and many other places. Because of my close connection to parts of the journalism/reporting world, reading this memoir brought out a lot of the same emotions that I have when I have conversations with my aunt. While there were times where I was comparing her experiences to the experiences that my aunt shared with me, there were many differences, mainly because they reported on different topics, and I got another in-depth look at the life of someone, and a profession, that I greatly respect.
While there is so much more to this memoir that I couldn’t put into writing, and I certainly didn’t do this memoir justice, I hope that you eventually decide to give this book a read and get to experience what I experienced while reading this book.
This is a book where my thoughts/review cannot do the book justice in the slightest, so just read the book please. This has also been one of the most difficult books to articulate what I’ve been feeling throughout this book, and I’ve never spent so much time on a review.
The book is fantastically well written. Clarissa brings a whole new light to issues and places that have been shown usually one dimensionally. Often times you only see places like Syria and Afghanistan through an edited perspective through news channels and news articles that have been thoroughly edited to appeal to a wider range of people usually in America and European that cannot truly encapsulate the feeling of the people living there or the impacts of a conflict on every aspect of their society. Her book brings a whole new perspective to all of the interactions with the people and the culture in the places that she’s reported on that didn’t make it into those news articles and the little clips that make it onto either 60 minutes or onto the television news networks. It’s such a raw and real look at all these places that a lot of people have only seen through a specific lens that has been filtered for us.
She gives us a really unique lens to look through a lot of the hidden aspects of journalism that are not shown to the public. Things like the waiting that happens, and how reliant they are on people from the country she’s going to be at to aid her and her team with providing translators and places to house them, and sometimes needing people to smuggle her across borders if necessary. She also describes the interactions that she has with all these men, women, and children, and the connections that she makes with them. She encapsulates how pure and raw a lot of those connections are to the point that how she has left places and becomes absolutely depressed and anxious because of the connection she feel to these places.
I think one of the most interesting aspects of this book was reading about all the time and effort that she puts into learning about the places she’s going. Reading about the tutors that she finds and enlists when she arrives to learn a language like Arabic while she’s working and living in the Middle East and all the other things she does to fully immersed herself into the place where she’s going to be. She had read and references multiple versions of the Quran during her assignments in the Middle East and she continues to educate herself on the language, the culture, the religion, and the customs of the place she’s going to be at so she knows how to speak and connect to people she will be talking to.
Another absolutely fascinating aspect of the book was how she got into and out of a lot of the countries she was at. There were times where she was the only one who could obtain a work visa or she didn’t even obtain a work visa and had to be smuggled over a border so she could have these interviews and report on these places. You learn about the process of getting the footage that she was able to get and how a lot of the time her reporting and set up had to be makeshift because of the suddenness of the interaction or the paranoia of the people she was interviewing. You learn the backstory to how she got a lot of the footage that won her awards like her two Emmy’s for her work in Syria with Ben Plesser.
The perspective of her memoirs shifts when she finds out she’s pregnant. She is so open and raw about how her perspective changed as she soon as she found out she was pregnant and how that affected her reporting. She would continue to go into countries and interview people throughout her pregnancy, and she describes how her maternal instinct really jumped out during these times and how bring a mother really shifted her thoughts and how she went around as a reporter.
I love the rawness of this memoir. It describes and shows the highs and lows of her life, of journalism, and of specific assignments. She acknowledges some of the mistakes she’s made and the mental and physical toll that being a conflict reporter has on a person. It provides you with advice for if you were ever in a similar situation that she has been in without the advice being forced. She has a way with her words that make you feel like you are going through her memories with her and you feel like you can see the emotion on her face while she is writing each section. Some of the quotes she included from civilian interviews in and around war zones are absolutely haunting. I love how she didn’t shy away from talking about her experiences as a woman in war zones, in Russia, as a journalist, and how much misogyny she faced from the people she worked with and interviewed and from the countries she was in. Overall this book feels like you are having a conversation with her, like you are sitting across from her as she is flipping through a photo album of the photos included in the book and talking about them with you. You feel every emotion she had and you get to experience a side of journalism that addictive and heartbreaking.
I think it’s also important to explain why I was drawn to her memoir and why this book had such an impact on me. First and foremost it’s because I’ve always been interested, and aware, of the lives of journalists. My aunt worked for years as a reporter for CNN and then left to do work for other international organizations. I constantly bugged her for stories of her trips abroad during her time at CNN, as well as her later years, when she visited the Middle East, Russia, west Africa, and many other places. Because of my close connection to parts of the journalism/reporting world, reading this memoir brought out a lot of the same emotions that I have when I have conversations with my aunt. While there were times where I was comparing her experiences to the experiences that my aunt shared with me, there were many differences, mainly because they reported on different topics, and I got another in-depth look at the life of someone, and a profession, that I greatly respect.
While there is so much more to this memoir that I couldn’t put into writing, and I certainly didn’t do this memoir justice, I hope that you eventually decide to give this book a read and get to experience what I experienced while reading this book.
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April 24, 2024“Regarding the pain of others” by Susan Sontag inspired me to read memoirs of war reporters and photographers and this book written by an international CNN reporter is the first one that I’ve completed so far. I was also happy to find out that many of these books describe lives of female war reporters and photographers. Just to name a few: Anna Politkovskaya, Marie Colvin, Anne Nivat, Lindsey Addario.
And I have to say that I have very mixed feelings about Clarissa’s memoir. From one side, the first 100 pages were quite interesting and I liked how Clarissa was aware of her privilege and the word ”privilege” is used quite often in this book for good reason: white woman with UK-US background travels to Iraq, Syria, Myanmar, Yemen, Lebanon, Palestine, Afghanistan – what else to expect?.. I also like the fact that by the end of this book you get so sick of hypocrisies of the Western foreign policies that tend to care only about certain conflicts (because either white people suffer, or the West is particularly interested in knocking down the aggressor from pure foreign policy perspective) and not give any sh*t when brown and black people are dying. Which is a strong message to keep sending to the world on a daily basis.
From another (disappointing) side, the biggest question is what’s the motivation of this lady? And after the final pages I was able to answer it clearly: she wanted to make the best story which in the context of massive people suffering is too competitive and egodriven, imho. Her behavior during pregnancy was hard to comprehend (sleeping in an arctic tent in Greenland or going to malaria zones) and how she explained it was also egodriven: “I had a fear that I would become irrelevant, that I would miss out on big stories”, so a big story must be her story... Reference to her trip to Afghanistan during the Taliban rule as “one of the more fascinating trips of her career” didn’t connect with my perception of the word “fascinating”. Moreover, I found some pictures in the book inappropriate (e.g. portrait photo with destroyed houses on the background).
And I have to say that I have very mixed feelings about Clarissa’s memoir. From one side, the first 100 pages were quite interesting and I liked how Clarissa was aware of her privilege and the word ”privilege” is used quite often in this book for good reason: white woman with UK-US background travels to Iraq, Syria, Myanmar, Yemen, Lebanon, Palestine, Afghanistan – what else to expect?.. I also like the fact that by the end of this book you get so sick of hypocrisies of the Western foreign policies that tend to care only about certain conflicts (because either white people suffer, or the West is particularly interested in knocking down the aggressor from pure foreign policy perspective) and not give any sh*t when brown and black people are dying. Which is a strong message to keep sending to the world on a daily basis.
From another (disappointing) side, the biggest question is what’s the motivation of this lady? And after the final pages I was able to answer it clearly: she wanted to make the best story which in the context of massive people suffering is too competitive and egodriven, imho. Her behavior during pregnancy was hard to comprehend (sleeping in an arctic tent in Greenland or going to malaria zones) and how she explained it was also egodriven: “I had a fear that I would become irrelevant, that I would miss out on big stories”, so a big story must be her story... Reference to her trip to Afghanistan during the Taliban rule as “one of the more fascinating trips of her career” didn’t connect with my perception of the word “fascinating”. Moreover, I found some pictures in the book inappropriate (e.g. portrait photo with destroyed houses on the background).
December 29, 2024
Fascinating book about an unbelievably bold, brave, and impressive woman. Well timed to read so much about the Syrian civil war right after Asad’s fall. Highly recommend for anyone interested in international affairs. Only criticism is that I wish it covered a few more places she covered in more depth; the large majority was on Syria.
January 15, 2023
So good, such a powerful read!
October 12, 2020
Clarissa Ward’s “On All Fronts” is a fantastic read.. It's a riveting personal account of what it's actually like covering war. You get an understanding of the day- to-day insanity of real bullet-flying, car-bombing, sleep and eat on the run, friends dying in front of you, journalism. But her voice is not the usual swashbuckled macho I read from her fellows. Her storytelling is from the bone, it's an emotional experience as well. War zones are harsh, and the best and worst of humanity are constantly in your face. I was one of the CBS producers watching her feeds coming across and editing her material from the comfort of a New York edit room. She always got great stuff. - She was one of the few who actually got in and reported from Syria and Yemen. Clarissa is pretty amazing. This is a must read.
January 2, 2022
I did really love this book. There aren’t many memoirs by women working in conflict zones, as I have, so I was eager to read this. Clarissa Ward is brilliant, brave, honest, and a great writer. I tore through this book and would most certainly recommend it.
My main qualm with the book is that I feel like she glazed over her feelings to an extent. She mentions her anxiety quite a bit and alludes to PTSD but doesn’t really unpack it. This book seems to serve less as a memoir and more of a way for her to tell the stories of the the people she met in the field who were affected by the various conflicts. This is a noble objective, but I would have loved to hear more about her. She could have added at least 50 more pages 😆
My main qualm with the book is that I feel like she glazed over her feelings to an extent. She mentions her anxiety quite a bit and alludes to PTSD but doesn’t really unpack it. This book seems to serve less as a memoir and more of a way for her to tell the stories of the the people she met in the field who were affected by the various conflicts. This is a noble objective, but I would have loved to hear more about her. She could have added at least 50 more pages 😆
April 15, 2021
I've been an observer and appreciator of Ms. Ward's reporting for some time, so I was excited to hear that she had penned a book about her life and career. I wish it had been longer. She discussed parts of her childhood and the path she took to become a passionate and reliable reporter. The passages about her time in Syria were fascinating and descriptive. Being a Russophile, I would have been interested in learning more about her encounters with those who likely had a hand in the poisoning of Alexy Navalny-but the book was published before these events occurred. Hoping that she writes a follow-up in the future.
February 1, 2024
I flew through this book. Clarissa Ward’s account of what she experienced on the front lines of several war torn countries is raw and honest and gut-wrenchingly human in the best and worst possible ways. As a woman dealing with many powerful male leaders of patriarchal societies, I was awed by Clarissa’s sheer determination and ability to hold her own. Working as a war correspondent, you need to be able to compartmentalize what you are witnessing in order to report and do your job, but at the same time you need tremendous empathy to communicate the stories well. Although it often came at great personal cost, Clarissa never lost an opportunity to connect with and really understand the people she was reporting on and with. It was really interesting to hear about how becoming a mother made her job so much harder. For me this is just reinforcement for there being more women in leadership. I’m so sick of men and their stupid wars.
March 3, 2022
Clarissa Ward is such a force. She continues to break boundaries in her reporting and dedication to telling the important and devastating stories of innocent people caught in the middle of war and persecution. I was moved by her eloquent recounting of each and every person she’s met throughout her career. She always described their interactions with love and captured their essence beautifully. The way she described each of her assignments made you feel like you were right there with her on the dangerous frontlines, and I think that speaks to her journalistic gift.
After finishing this audiobook, it was clear that her purpose of writing this was not only to give readers a more intimate and personal look into her reporting, but also to humanize the people who are often forgotten in geopolitical conflicts.
All around an incredible read. She is just amazing!
After finishing this audiobook, it was clear that her purpose of writing this was not only to give readers a more intimate and personal look into her reporting, but also to humanize the people who are often forgotten in geopolitical conflicts.
All around an incredible read. She is just amazing!
December 29, 2022
She has a very unique view of the world and writes her story eloquently. As a female reporter entering many different Muslim communities, she’s able to report on both the violence and the hospitality. She’s able to enter the female only areas and see first hand how people around the world live. She is able to humanize things I heard on the news years ago. Definitely worth a read.
January 30, 2024
Don’t think I could speak more highly about this woman. Phenomenally inspiring journalist whose recap of her coverage in the Middle East over the past 2 decades is defined by the everyday people affected by it all. I would love to invite her to a dinner party in a heartbeat and pick her brain.
February 9, 2022
Incredible. Learned a lot about conflict in the Middle East and her perspective covering the conflict as a female journalist is unlike anything I have heard before. Wish it was longer.
April 18, 2023
I loved this!! Highly recommend.
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August 14, 2023Excellent.
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