Images of War
The man who gave the world one of the iconic images of World War II, of six marines raising an American flag on Iwo Jima’s volcanic Mount Suribachi near the start of the American assault to capture the Japanese-held island and its airfields, has died at age 94. Joe Rosenthal’s name never became as famous as that image. A fine book was published in May, Uncommon Valor, Common Virtue: Iwo Jima and the Photograph That Captured America, by longtime AP photo editor Hal Buell, telling the full story of the photograph (and including a short DVD). It is well worth making available to library patrons, along with other recent books about World War II.
The publication of books about various aspects of that war continues seemingly unabated. Three November titles, to be reviewed in LJ soon, are Lloyd Clark’s Anzio: Italy and the Battle for Rome, 1944 (Atlantic Monthly), James F. Hornfischer’s Ship of Ghosts: The Story of the USS Houston, FDR’s Legendary Lost Cruiser… (Bantam), and Evan Thomas’s Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign: the War in the Pacific, 1941-1945 (S&S).
In updating their war photography books so that they include today’s conflicts, librarians are faced with the decision of whether to acquire the books that present not simply sentimental, heroic or uplifting images from Iraq, but graphic shots of carnage and suffering. I assigned one of these books for review, Unembedded: Four Independent Photojournalists on the War in Iraq, published by Chelsea Green in January, a wrenching and disturbing look at the war’s impact upon Iraqi’s people. Later this year, Interlink Publishing will bring out Iraq: A War, a collection of Associated Press photographs from the conflict, described as showing “the true face of the US occupation of Iraq.” It is even more disturbing to view than the Chelsea Green title. Are librarians finding a place for these on their shelves, along with all the other Iraq books they must consider?
Librarians, do you find that your readers are more interested in studying past military ventures, where there is the benefit of knowing “how it turned out” and without the anxiety caused by images of a war still underway? Military history seems as popular as ever and there have been attendant graphic images before. Numerous books on the Civil War are illustrated with Brady or Gardner’s unvarnished battlefield photos: the bloated dead in the sunken road at Antietam, for example. Those images disturb less, perhaps, because, in any practical way, they are past reckoning with, and the black and white photography obscures the savagery of those battles.
Librarians, are you adding a full sampling of books assessing and reporting on the Iraq conflict? Or is there little demand for these books among either readers of military history or those wishing to keep a handle on current events?
Thank you for posting your thoughts.
Hi Margaret,
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I don’t see a strong correlation between audiences for books on WWII and the Iraqi War. Books on both could attract the same readers, but, I find, that WWII books are more popular with “Greatest Generation” age readers and Iraqi War books appeal to readers interested in current events. Books on the Iraqi War are very popular here, as I imagine they are in most public libraries. I believe the closure issue is not important because the Iraqi War, despite cliches about “changing horses in mid-stream” and the good old Vietnam-era saw, “the light at the end of the tunnel,” is far from settled as that unfortunate nation implodes into civil war. Instead of closure, as in WW II, (although we still learn new things about the war everyday, right Mr. Grass, interest in the Iraqi War grows because, in part, it is the subject dominating the media.
Comment by Karl Helicher — August 23, 2006 @ 9:04 am
Thanks, Karl, for your really helpful feedback. I’m not surprised that the WWII readers are a separate group, for the most part, from the Iraq War readers. But I am surprised that the Iraq books are popular. I had some anecdotal sense from publishers that there’d been an over-abundance of such books and they weren’t selling as well as hoped. However, there may have been an upturn in sales since then (it was earlier this year, or perhaps they’re not selling well because the readers are going to libraries!. In any case, I am sent nearly ten times as many Iraq books as I am able to assign, given our page and reviewer limits, but I try to send out books that cover the spectrum, from soldier/officer memoirs, to patriotic stuff, to condemnation, to more specialized analysis. Any further anecdotal info anyone wants to give me about readership for this Iraq material, I will appreciate! MH
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