Journalists and War

Chris Hedges is the author of one of the best non-fiction books I've read in a long time, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. In it he discusses some of the sociology or psychology behind war, and the desire to go to war. His books goes well beyond simply attacking the myths of war, to attempting to explain why people believe in those myths in the first place. Hegdes isn't a sociologist or a psychiatrist; he's a journalist, but surprisingly his book actually benefits from his intimate view of war and how people respond to. If you haven't read it, you should.

In the New York Review of Books he reviews a couple of books on war, also written by journalists, one an "embedded" journalist who follows around a company of Marines, and the other a journalist who was in Baghdad as the invasion as it began. It's a good review, and it gives him a chance to elucidate some of the themes from his own book. Stop by and check it out.