Bombing Civilians

“The powerful moral criticisms raised by these searching essays extend from the bombing of civilians to war itself.” —Robert Jay Lifton, National Book Award–winning author

Bombing Civilians examines a crucial question: why did military planning in the early twentieth century shift its focus from bombing military targets to bombing civilians? From the British bombing of Iraq in the early 1920s to the most recent policies in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lebanon, Bombing Civilians analyzes in detail the history of indiscriminate bombing, examining the fundamental questions of how this theory justifying mass killing originated and why it was employed as a compelling military strategy for decades, both before and since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

“A careful examination of one of the great horrors of modern times . . . Common to all the essays is an unmistakable and unspoken core of moral outrage, buttressed by meticulous research and unassailable logic.” —Howard Zinn, bestselling author of A People’s History of the United States

“A cogent case for reassessing the effectiveness of air campaigns.” —Japan Times

“A vividly detailed and profoundly troubling history of war fought from the air.” —Frida Berrigan, New America Foundation