This Modern Library edition of John Hersey's World War II classic has a new forward by the author. It is proof that history repeats itself and we don't ever seem to learn from our mistakes. Keep in mind that this book was written in 1943 about the US invasion of Sicily. Here is a quote from the forward:
"In September, 1943, when I wrote this book, we hadn't even begun to think very hard about what kind of politics the war itself represented. We were trying to fight an a-political, non-political, de-political war. We Americans thought we could fight a technical war; produce many weapons, move them fast, crush the enemy with tactics and machines. In the autumn of 1943 we were beginning to crush the enemy's physical power, without bothering our heads much about crushing the qualities the enemy manifested, the things that made him enemy. We have slowly begun to learn in peace, as we did not in war, the weary, huge, fateful meaning of the dry phrase, international politics--and yet in the very act of learning we already betray signs of forgetting."
John, wherever you are...we forgot--completely.
This volume is very good conditon with no jacket. It is 289 pages plus a complete list of Modern Library Classics as of 1946 when Bennett Cerf was editor at Random House, which owned Modern Library Classics.
