Chris Hedges

Looks at the appeal of war, arguing that the ideas of combat are noble and glorious, providing a purpose for living for some people.

War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning

Zubaer

This book was devastating to read. So important, but completely heart-breaking. At times it got redundant, which is why I knocked off a star, but this should be required reading.

Rick Powell

Hedges can be self-righteous and pretentious. Every once in a while it spills over into his prose style, unfortunately. But this is powerful work, rather ruthless in its evaluation of humanity however apt. I wish there had been less abstraction and moralizing, and more reportage.

Fan 

Joël

Ashley Hernandez

As a veteran war correspondent, Chris Hedges has survived ambushes in Central America, imprisonment in Sudan, and a beating by Saudi military police. He has seen children murdered for sport in Gaza and petty thugs elevated into war heroes in the Balkans. Hedges, who is also a former divinity student, has seen war at its worst and knows too well that to those who pass through it, war can be exhilarating and even addictive: “It gives us purpose, meaning, a reason for living.” Drawing on his own experience and on the literature of combat from Homer to Michael Herr, Hedges shows how war seduces not just those on the front lines but entire societies—corrupting politics, destroying culture, and perverting basic human desires. Mixing hard-nosed realism with profound moral and philosophical insight, War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning is a work of terrible power and redemptive clarity whose truths have never been more necessary.

War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning

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