Well of course I know theoretically that once a book is published it becomes the property of its readers, but it's still sometimes hard to see what some readers make of what you've written. Or don't make of it. So I was particularly pleased to discover Valerie Trueblood writing acutely and positively about my Guernica and Total War on Maud Newton's excellent blog. The book is about the way the aerial bombardment of civilians developed during the first half of the twentieth century, and how poets and writers (in particular) responded to it. It's also about the stupidity and inhumanity of it, and the need to stop doing it as soon as possible. If there's one lesson to learned from the sorry history of bombing it's that it seldom has the effect confidently predicted by military planners.
Books by Ian Patterson
Books with chapters by Ian Patterson
- Laura Marcus and Bryan Cheyette (eds.), : Modernity, Culture and "The Jew", Polity Press and Stanford University Press, 1998.
- Peter France and Kenneth Haynes (eds.): The Oxford History of Literary Translation in English, vol. 4 (1790-1900), Oxford University Press, 2006
- Jan Parker and Timothy Mathews (eds.): Tradition, Translation, Trauma. The Classic and the Modern, Oxford University Press, 2011
- Andrzej Gasiorek, Alice Reeve-Tucker and Nathan Waddell (eds.): Wyndham Lewis and the Cultures of Modernity, Ashgate, 2011
- Peter Brooker and Andrew Thacker, eds., : The Oxford Critical and Cultural History of Modernist Magazines: Vol. II North America 1894-1960, Oxford University Press, 2012
- Adam Piette and Mark Rawlinson, eds.,: The Edinburgh Companion to Twentieth-Century British and American War Literature, Edinburgh University Press, 2012
- eds. Rebecca Beasley and Philip Bullock, eds.,: Russia in Britain 1880-1940: From Melodrama to Modernism, Oxford University Press, 2013
- ed. Marion Thain: The Lyric Poem: Formations and Transformations, Cambridge University Press, 2014
Good stuff
- A A: IKP's other blog of archived articles
- A Don's Life: Mary Beard's blog
- Abandonedbuildings: Sean Bonney's blog
- Airminded
- Archive of the Now
- Baroque in Hackney
- Barque Press
- Biology of the Worst Kind: Jenny Diski
- Freebase Accordion: Peter Manson's site
- Jacket magazine
- LRB Blog: London Review of Books
- Maud Newton's blog
- Militant Esthetix
- Patrick Wright's webpages
- Philip Crozier's paintings
- Profile Books
- Salt Publishing
- The Lyre: British Poetry news
- Tom Raworth
It sounds like a great book. I will find it. I wonder if you know Sven Lindqvist's stuff? You probably do. He wrote A history of bombing. In fact, I'm sure you must know it. And can I add, to your final sentence, that so often the effect sought by military planners is seldom achieved, is it.
Posted by: Lara | August 14, 2007 at 11:50 AM
Hi there Ian... Yes, isn't that a great write-up at Maud's place! She's ace.
I was shocked by the part about the UN and Colin Powell. I don't know why... Picasso would be turning in his grave.
And isn't "military planning" an oxymoron like "military intelligence?"
Lara sent me here, by the way... Nice to be at the party early! I'll bookmark.
Posted by: Ms Baroque | August 14, 2007 at 09:44 PM