The First Casualty: The War Correspondent as Hero, Propagandist and Myth-Maker is recognised as the definitive book on war reporting and war propaganda.
From William Howard Russell who blew the whistle on the appalling conditions of the British forces in the Crimea, to the correspondents who lifted the lid on the reality of the Vietnam War, through to the modern day, it is a story of heroism and manipulation, censorship and espionage.
The lengths to which governments lie to fool the citizens of the enemy and, even more so, fool their own, has not diminished with the years, it is argued – it has grown.
Chosen as American Book of the Month Club main choice 1975, and Winner of the 1976 Overseas Press Club of America Award for the Best Book on Foreign Affairs, the book has been continually revised over the years as new wars occur. An updated paperback edition of the book is now available that includes the US-led war in Iraq.
Disturbing, even dismaying, yet also in its painful way, enormously entertaining
- New Yorker
[This book] may make us all a little more free to talk about and find the truth.
- Garry Wills, New York Times Book Review
In war, truth may be the first casualty, but in Phillip Knightley’s compelling examination of the war correspondent as journalist-mouthpiece-propagandist, the truth survives unscathed. Myths are exploded, scoundrels unmasked, the best and worst of the history of a century plainly revealed.
- Morley Safer
Few books have deserved an updated edition more than Phillip Knightley’s history of war reporting since the 1850s . . . Invaluable for anyone with an interest in the media, it is equally recommended as a modern history of government lies.
- Times Literary Supplement
Buy The First Casualty — UK | US
Comments on this entry are closed.
{ 7 trackbacks }