From the editor of the national bestseller
WAR LETTERS,
comes an even more extraordinary
collection of rare and
previously-unpublished wartime correspondence:
ISBN: 0743256166
Author: Andrew Carroll
Publisher: Scribner
For the Behind the Lines "Reading Group Guide," please click here.
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For information about Andrew Carroll's previous bestseller, WAR LETTERS, please click here.
Behind the Lines is an extraordinary achievement, a compendium of voices at once immediate and timeless, heart-breaking and entertaining. Andrew Carroll bears witness to cataclysm by allowing participants to speak for themselves, achieving an evocative power rare even in the best war literature. Rick Atkinson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943
There are two vastly different ways of studying war. One has to do with
the great story of history and of nations, the other with dying alone
in a field hospital; with missing someone so much it aches; with
wrestling down fear and shoring up courage; or enduring war?s squalor
and absurdity. Andrew Carroll studies the human side of war in this
stirring, moving, and sometimes hilarious collection. Behind the Lines
is a tribute to the human spirit.
Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk
Down
This book is more than a collection of newly-discovered war letters.
There is something deeper, richer, and more intense at work here. Each
letter is extraordinary in its own right, but together they illuminate
war as it is rarely seen. Most importantly, Behind the Lines is the
result of Andrew Carroll's unprecedented trip around the world to seek
out these gripping, insightful, and, in so many cases, breathtaking
letters. This is a book born of great passion. This is a book with
tremendous heart and soul.
James Bradley, author of Flags of Our
Fathers and Flyboys
From the American Revolution to Iraq, everything is here: the terror
and exhilaration of bloody combat, love letters, funny letters, letters
from civilians caught in the middle of war. Behind the Lines is worth
savoring; you can dip into it at any page and find something
fascinating.
Joseph L. Galloway, co-author of We Were Soldiers
Once...and Young and Triumph Without Victory: The History of the
Persian Gulf War
This book is absolutely majestic. The letters may be about war, but
taken together they are about far more than conflict. They provide an
unblinking look at the best and worst that human beings can do to each
other, and in so doing transcend themselves. They become the colors
with which Andrew Carroll has created a kind of historical art.
McKay
Jenkins, author of The Last Ridge: The Epic Story of America's First
Mountain Soldiers and the Assault on Hitler's Europe
In all my years of military service, I don't believe I have ever read a
book that has moved me as profoundly as this one. While it is often the
generals and military leaders who receive the limelight, Andrew
Carroll's Behind the Lines reminds us that it is the individual troops
in the field and their loved ones at home who most deserve our
admiration and attention. Behind the Lines is a candid look at the
fierce realities of warfare, but it is also a lasting tribute to those
who have foughtand continue to fightfor freedom. I cannot recommend
this book more highly.
Lieutenant General Claudia Kennedy, US Army
(retired), the highest ranking woman in the history of the American
armed forces
There is nothing more powerful then words written when life as you know
it hangs in the balance. From soldiers on the front lines writing to
sweethearts and family, to resistance fighters and so many others in
the midst of war and its aftermath, Behind The Lines has letters from
every conflict since the Revolution representing just about every race
and many different cultures. This book is phenomenal and a must read.
Yvonne Latty, author of We Were There: Voices of African American
Veterans from World War II to the War in Iraq
All material © Copyright The Legacy Project, 2008