Book at War
Regular price
€38.99
A Sunday Times Best Book of 2023
'Magisterial' Kathryn Hughes, The Sunday Times (A Sunday Times Book of the Week)
'Rich, authoritative and highly readable, Andrew Pettegree's tour de force will appeal to anyone for whom, whatever the circumstances, books are an abiding, indispensable part of life.' David Kynaston
Chairman Mao was a librarian. Stalin was a published poet. Evelyn Waugh served as a commando - before leaving to write Brideshead Revisited. Since the advent of modern warfare, books have all too often found themselves on the frontline.
In The Book at War, acclaimed historian Andrew Pettegree traces the surprising ways in which written culture - from travel guides and scientific papers to Biggles and Anne Frank - has shaped, and been shaped, by the conflicts of the modern age.
From the American Civil War to the invasion of Ukraine, books, authors and readers have gone to war - and in the process become both deadly weapons and our most persuasive arguments for peace.
Andrew Pettegree, FBA, is Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews. He is the co-author of The Library: A Fragile History, and the prize-winning The Book in the Renaissance and The Invention of News. He is a former Vice-President of the Royal Historical Society and founding director of the Universal Short Title Catalogue.