I You We Them, Vol. 1
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux
A “powerful” historical investigation into crimes against humanity—and those who give the orders from the safety of their desks (The Spectator).
A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of the Year
A Spectator (UK) Best Book of the Year
I You We Them is an unprecedented study of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity: the “desk killers” who ordered and directed some of the worst atrocities of the modern era. From Albert Speer’s complicity in Nazi barbarism to Royal Dutch Shell’s role in the murders of Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and the rest of the Ogoni Nine, Dan Gretton probes the depths of the figure who, by giving orders, uses paper or a phone or a computer to kill, instead of a gun.
Over twenty years, Gretton interviewed survivors and perpetrators, and pored over archives and thousands of pages of testimony. His insight into the psychology of the desk killer is contextualized by the journey he took to penetrate it. Woven into the narrative are his contemplative interludes—perspectives gleaned during walks in the woods, reminiscences about a lost love, and considerations of timeless moral conundrums. The result is a genre-bending work steeped as much in personal reflection as it is in literature and historical and psychological illumination.
A synthesis of history, reportage, and memoir, I You We Them is the first volume of a groundbreaking journal of discovery that bears witness to and reckons with the largest and most pressing questions we face.
“Gretton raises profoundly unsettling questions about the capacity for doing evil that exists within all of us, and the ways in which the distancing effect of technology allows perpetrators to avoid thinking about the consequences of their actions.” —Irish Times
“The subject is tremendously important in a time grown ever darker—and ever more reminiscent of the darkest days in modern world history.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A uniquely gripping journey around the landscapes of mass murder.” —Philippe Sands, author of East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity
A Washington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of the Year
A Spectator (UK) Best Book of the Year
I You We Them is an unprecedented study of the perpetrators of crimes against humanity: the “desk killers” who ordered and directed some of the worst atrocities of the modern era. From Albert Speer’s complicity in Nazi barbarism to Royal Dutch Shell’s role in the murders of Nigerian activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and the rest of the Ogoni Nine, Dan Gretton probes the depths of the figure who, by giving orders, uses paper or a phone or a computer to kill, instead of a gun.
Over twenty years, Gretton interviewed survivors and perpetrators, and pored over archives and thousands of pages of testimony. His insight into the psychology of the desk killer is contextualized by the journey he took to penetrate it. Woven into the narrative are his contemplative interludes—perspectives gleaned during walks in the woods, reminiscences about a lost love, and considerations of timeless moral conundrums. The result is a genre-bending work steeped as much in personal reflection as it is in literature and historical and psychological illumination.
A synthesis of history, reportage, and memoir, I You We Them is the first volume of a groundbreaking journal of discovery that bears witness to and reckons with the largest and most pressing questions we face.
“Gretton raises profoundly unsettling questions about the capacity for doing evil that exists within all of us, and the ways in which the distancing effect of technology allows perpetrators to avoid thinking about the consequences of their actions.” —Irish Times
“The subject is tremendously important in a time grown ever darker—and ever more reminiscent of the darkest days in modern world history.” —Kirkus Reviews
“A uniquely gripping journey around the landscapes of mass murder.” —Philippe Sands, author of East West Street: On the Origins of Genocide and Crimes against Humanity
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