The Book at War: How Reading Shaped Conflict and Conflict Shaped Reading

by Andrew Pettegree

Overview

A "magisterial" (Sunday Times) history of how books were used in war across the twentieth century—both as weapons and as agents for peace

We tend not to talk about books and war in the same breath—one ranks among humanity’s greatest inventions, the other among its most terrible. But as esteemed literary historian Andrew Pettegree demonstrates, the two are deeply intertwined. The Book at War explores the various roles that books have played in conflicts throughout the globe. Winston Churchill used a travel guide to plan the invasion of Norway, lonely families turned to libraries while their loved ones were fighting in the trenches, and during the Cold War both sides used books to spread their visions of how the world should be run. As solace or instruction manual, as critique or propaganda, books have shaped modern military history—for both good and ill. 

With precise historical analysis and sparkling prose, The Book at War accounts for the power—and the ambivalence—of words at war.  

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781541604346
Publisher:	Basic Books
Publication date:	12/05/2023
Pages:	480
Sales rank:	175,630
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.80(d)

About the Author

Andrew Pettegree is a professor of modern history at the University of St. Andrews. A leading expert on the history of book and media transformations, Pettegree is the award-winning author of several books on news and information culture, including The Library: A Fragile History (with Arthur der Weduwen). He lives in Scotland. 

Editorial Reviews

This is a long, loping read, a campaign to reveal functions of reading that we often take for granted. The results are expansive, rather than reductive, and well worth the fight, as long as you're willing to learn a little about Prussian history along the way.”—Boston Globe

“Pettegree clearly possesses an exceptional breadth of knowledge, in addition to a skill for nuanced narrative and convincing arguments. His accounts are often fascinating.”—Washington Post

“Magisterial.”
 —Sunday Times

“The range of reference is vast…Pettegree is a vigorous guide.”
 —Times Literary Supplement

“Endlessly fascinating.”
 —Irish Times

“A generous and often surprising study.”—Los Angeles Review of Books

“Pettegree traces the practical and symbolic roles played by books and literary culture in modern wars. It’s a vast subject and Pettegree takes us on a remorselessly interesting march through it.”
 —Literary Review

“Pettegree, despite the massive scope of his mission, keeps the stories and characters tight and concise. A book about books can sometimes get convoluted, but the author keeps this story moving at all times.”—Shelf Awareness

“A richly detailed cultural history.”
 —Kirkus

“The writing is brisk, the scholarship formidable. This is an eminently approachable study that opens a new way of making sense of World Wars I and II.”
 —Library Journal

“There are surprising details…on every page of Pettegree’s fascinating text.”
 —Booklist

"In modern warfare, books provide poignant witness statements as well as admonitory propaganda. They are weapons of war, composed by soldiers, studied by civilians, but also thrown into the fire. In his own impressive book, Andrew Pettegree shows how words could be blood-curdling and texts blood-spattered. Read on in order to turn the pages of war and peace."
 —Peter Fritzsche, author of Hitler’s First Hundred Days

“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, author of Till Time’s Last Sand

“Books create; wars destroy. Yet The Book at War shows how inextricably entwined the two have always been. Illuminating.”
 —Judith Flanders, author of A Place For Everything

From the Publisher

11/01/2023

The two world wars of the 20th century put stress on publishers, booksellers, and libraries, but they also opened opportunities and accelerated changes in book production (see the ubiquity of paperback books among the armed forces) both during and after World Wars I and II. Pettegree (modern history, Univ. of St. Andrews; The Library: A Fragile History) draws on a vast, sprawling literature—books about and generated by war, plus letters and memos—from all the major participants. He discusses the use of books as weapons in war (patriotic literature; propaganda), mobilization of knowledge (science; cartography), the destruction and plunder of libraries, and the complicated history of postwar book-censorship. He shows how books changed reading patterns at home, in the army, and in POW camps. For example, POWs became confirmed, instead of desultory, readers who favored long books over short because reading them could be stretched out. This book could have been dry as dust but isn't: Pettegree humanizes his narrative with lively anecdotes and facts that change the way the subject is approached. VERDICT The writing is brisk, the scholarship formidable. This is an eminently approachable study that opens a new way of making sense of World Wars I and II.—David Keymer

Library Journal

2023-09-26
How printed matter has shaped the course of war throughout history.

British historian Pettegree offers a wide-ranging investigation of the role of books in warfare, considering ways that “print in all its manifestations” has inspired patriotism and justified conflict, contributed to the information and skills needed for waging war, supported civilians on the home front, and kept up the morale of troops. Drawing on published and archival material, including letters and diaries, Pettegree closely examines several treatises specifically addressed to warfare: Sun Tzu’s ancient classic The Art of War; Machiavelli’s The Art of War, from 1521; and Carl von Clausewitz’s On War, published in 1832. While these books focused on military strategy, other publications set the stage for justification: Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, for example, proved influential in shaping Union support for the Civil War. In late-19th-century Britain, articles in magazines addressed to young men, such as The Boy’s Own Paper, nurtured a martial spirit. Pettegree discusses books that disseminated “poisonous ideologies,” as well as nations’ efforts to censor and control public access. Nazis, as is well known, burned books by Jews and others they considered undesirable. During World War I, pro-German books were cleared from U.S. libraries. In contrast, much effort has been devoted to finding safe havens for books vulnerable to bombings. The “books for Sammies” campaign distributed books to fighting men in WWI. During World War II, library associations and publishers—notably Penguin, in the U.K.—provided mountains of books for soldiers, none more so than the Armed Services Editions, which shipped 122 million copies of more than 1,300 titles to soldiers around the world. As in his recent history The Library, Pettegree makes a solid case for the endurance of books in daily life and during conflicts, “notwithstanding the domination of new technologies of war-making and information gathering.”

A richly detailed cultural history.

Kirkus Reviews