Cultures of war Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, Iraq
A groundbreaking comparative study of the dynamics and pathologies of war in modern times. Over recent decades, Pulitzer-winning historian John W. Dower has addressed the roots and consequences of war from multiple perspectives. Here he examines the cultures of war revealed by four powerful events--...
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| Language: | English |
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New York
W.W. Norton New Press
2010
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Table of Contents:
- pt. I. "Pearl Harbor" as code: wars of choice and failures of intelligence. 1. Infamy and the cracked mirror of history : "Pearl Harbor" as code ; The boomerang of "Pearl Harbor"
- 2. The failure of intelligence : Prelude to Pearl Harbor ; Prelude to 9-11 ; Postmortems: Pearl Harbor ; Postmortems: 9-11
- 3. The failure of imagination : "Little yellow sons-of-bitches" ; Rationality, desperation, and risk ; Aiding and abetting the enemy ; "This little terrorist in Afghanistan"
- 4. Innocence, evil, and amnesia : Catastrophe and the transfer of innocence ; Evil and the transfer of evil ; Amnesia and Frankenstein's monster ; Evil where the price is worth it
- 5. Wars of choice and strategic imbecilities : Pearl Harbor and "Operation Iraqi Freedom" ; The emperor system and imperial presidency ; Choosing war ; Strategic imbecilities ; Deception and delusion ; Victory disease and the gates of hell
- "Pearl Harbor" as godsend
- pt. II. Ground Zero 1945 and Ground Zero 2001: terror and mass destruction. 7. "Hiroshima" as code
- 8. Air war and terror bombing in World War II : Ghost cities ; Extirpating "noncombatants" ; "Increasing the terror" in Germany ; Targeting Japan ; Firebombing the great cities ; "Burn jobs" and "secondary targets" ; Morale, shock, and psychological warfare
- 9. "The most terrible bomb in the history of the world" : Ground zeroes ; Anticipating zero ; Becoming death ; Ending the war and saving American lives
- 10. The irresistible logic of mass destruction : Brute force ; August 1945 and the rejected alternatives ; Unconditional surrender ; Power politics and the Cold War ; Partisan politics
- 11. Sweetness, beauty, and idealistic annihilation : Scientific sweetness and technological imperatives ; Technocratic momentum and the war machine ; The aesthetics of mass destruction ; Revenge ; Idealistic annihilation
- 12. New evils in the world:1945/2001 : Evil beyond recall ; Arrogating God ; Holy war against the west: seisen and jihad ; Ground zeroes: state and nonstate terror ; Managing savagery
- pt. III. Wars and occupations: winning the peace, losing the peace. 13. Occupied Japan and occupied Iraq : Winning the war, losing the peace ; Occupied Japan and the eye of the beholder ; Incommensurable worlds ; Planning postwar Japan ; Eyes wide shut: occupying Iraq ; Repudiating nation building ; Baghdad burning
- 14. Convergence of a sort: law, justice, and transgression : Jiggering the law ; Legal and illegal occupation ; War crimes and the ricochet of victor's justice ; Spheres of influence and the limbo of defeated armies ; Dissipating intangible assets
- 15. Nation building and market fundamentalism : Controls and capitalisms ; Corruption and crime ; Successful and disastrous demilitarization ; "Generalists" versus "area experts" ; Privatizing nation building ; Rendering Iraq "open for business" ; Aid in two eras ; Combating carpetbagging in an earlier time ; Mixed legacies in an age of forgetting
- Epilogue: Fools' errands and fools' gold : Secular priesthoods and faith-based policies ; Fools' errands ; Fools' gold