In this book, Lindqvist turns his clear, inquisitive eye on aerial bombing, and the profound and terrible effects of its aftermath on the 20th century.
Drawing on a rich range of sources, from popular fiction to first-hand accounts by the victims and perpetrators of bombing, from official government documents, to his own personal experiences as a child, parent and grandparent, Lindqvist unearths the fascinating history of the development of air power and bombs.
He exposes the racist assumptions underlying colonial bombing campaigns in North Africa, and France and England's use of bombing to subdue post-war independence movements; and he probes the psychology of Bomber Harris. He sets about the recipe for napalm, and the science of smart bombs, and he asks some uncomfortable questions: did bombs ever produce the expected results? Is bombing civilians a war crime, and if so why have the laws of war and international justice proved so impotent? Why can't the truth about Hiroshima be told in the Air and Space museum in Washington?
Lindqvist has constructed the book in an ingenious way: as a sort of labyrinth in which the reader is offered a number of paths through a century of war. This makes for a fascinating reading experience, allowing us to grasp the chaos of history, and the way in which different narratives attempt to make sense of it.
Moving, harrowing, enraging, sometimes blackly funny, 'A History Of Bombing' is a remarkable experiment in historiography and a deeply necessary and important book.
