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Breaking Ranks: Iraq Veterans Speak Out against the War
Breaking Ranks brings a new and deeply personal perspective to the war in Iraq by looking into the lives of six veterans who turned against the war they helped to fight. Based on extensive interviews with each of the six, the book relates why they enlisted, their experiences in training and in early missions, their tours of combat, and what has happened to them since returning home. The compelling stories of this diverse cross section of the military recount how each journey to Iraq began with the sincere desire to do good. Matthew Gutmann and Catherine Anne Lutz show how each individual's experiences led to new moral and political understandings and ultimately to opposing the war.
234 pages, Hardcover
First published July 2, 2010
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September 19, 2015
The story of six veterans involved with Iraq Veterans Against The War, chosen from a series of oral histories and fleshed out with more interviews. They are male, female, gay, straight, from different races, and in different branches of the service. It is always fascinating to see people's thoughts and their emotional responses to events. Other people's experiences are part of why I read books.
The book was a really easy read - I often read nonfiction very slowly, but finished this one in a few days, it's a potato chip anti-war book. This is probably at least partly due to Catherine Lutz, whose works I have read before. (I also love oral history, and the veterans have lots of quotes throughout the book's paragraphs. Hearing people's actual human turns of phrase makes things seem more real, and more...friendly, somehow. Probably because it's more like personal interaction, even if it's just with the printed page version of the person.)
I was against the war before reading the book, and wanted to support the troops also, and I still have those opinion coming out of the book. Hopefully I understand people who fight a little better.
The book was a really easy read - I often read nonfiction very slowly, but finished this one in a few days, it's a potato chip anti-war book. This is probably at least partly due to Catherine Lutz, whose works I have read before. (I also love oral history, and the veterans have lots of quotes throughout the book's paragraphs. Hearing people's actual human turns of phrase makes things seem more real, and more...friendly, somehow. Probably because it's more like personal interaction, even if it's just with the printed page version of the person.)
I was against the war before reading the book, and wanted to support the troops also, and I still have those opinion coming out of the book. Hopefully I understand people who fight a little better.
Displaying 1 of 1 review