War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning

By: Chris Hedges

Narrated by: Chris Hedges

As a veteran war correspondent, Chris Hedges has survived ambushes in Central America, imprisonment in Sudan, and a beating by Saudi military police. He has seen children murdered for sport in Gaza and petty thugs elevated into war heroes in the Balkans. Hedges, who is also a former divinity student, has seen war at its worst and knows too well that to those who pass through it, war can be exhilarating and even addictive: "It gives us purpose, meaning, a reason for living."

Drawing on his own experience and on the literature of combat from Homer to Michael Herr, Hedges shows how war seduces not just those on the front lines but entire societies, corrupting politics, destroying culture, and perverting the most basic human desires. Mixing hard-nosed realism with profound moral and philosophical insight, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning is a work of terrible power and redemptive clarity whose truths have never been more necessary.

©2007 Chris Hedges (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.

Critic reviews

"A brilliant, thoughtful, timely, and unsettling book....Abounds with Hedges' harrowing and terribly moving eyewitness accounts...Powerful and informative." ( The New York Times Book Review)
"The best kind of war journalism: It is bitterly poetic and ruthlessly philosophical. It sends out a powerful message to people contemplating the escalation of the 'war against terrorism'." ( Los Angeles Times)

Augments a reading of the book, too

I'm a huge Hedges fan but purchased the audio book to listen to it with my husband on a car vacation. First published in 2003, during the end of the Bush era, what it says holds up quite well, and as a faithful reader of Hedges at Truthdig, lays the foundation for much of what Hedges still writes.

Hearing it read by Hedges himself makes the words still more thoughtful.

This is a book that I go back to over and over. My husband works with veterans. I work with kids whose parents are deployed or have been deployed and I hear the _echoes_ of this book many times.

I think about Hedges' final message repetitively. If we are going to unleash the dogs of war, we should always be aware of what the _ongoing_ costs are. And Hedges uniquely lays out a discussion of what those costs are. Clearly, the wars we are prosecuting in the middle east are not "worth it", never were, and continue to not be worth it.

Worth a read and definitely worth a listen.

25 years after I read this book...

... I'm still stunned by its message as well as the imagery it portrays. I met Chris Hedges through the internet as he was giving his "CALLING ALL REBELS" lecture to arapt assembly. I went right out and purchased the book and read it through once and then read it again two cats the things that I'd missed in the dialogue. Chris is an amazing spring of the issues that face us, that have faced us it and that will continue unless we flip this script and change the narratives. But that's being a little Pollyanna-esque, isn't it? Cruises examples of what happens to humanity once it goes down that rabbit hole of religious nationalism and all of its offspring, it and after decades and generations of the same kind of parapet, we just do it over and over again. It's almost like it's by Design to sort of a scrooge could it kind of helped decline the excess population, or something along those lines. I have five Sons who have given me five grandchildren, boys and girls, and sometimes I feel like Mr Andrews from the Titanic as he was setting the clock and talking to Rose, he states that" I wish I would have built you a stronger boat column rows". Man comment do I feel that sentiment with regard to my family.

But enough about all that, the book is a wonderful depiction of our 'darker angels', but it also shows the milk of human kindness and the capacity to love. It describes those who would report on such events and photographs and put their lives on the line to tell the story, much like the author. Totally worth the read very

Amazing book!

Great book awesome story it is definitely worth it enjoyed every second of it I would definitely come back and listen to it again maybe even a third

The myth of war

The myth of war exposed. The motivation for war considered. The consequences of war and the experience of war. It covers many of these aspects. I Appreciate the book for its honesty treatment of the subjects.

Extremely Powerful

Hedges is a writer that doesn’t shy away from describing in detail the vicious brutality of war and the deleterious effects of our alienation to war’s reality. His testimonies on his experiences as a war correspondent are depressing, shocking, and, in an odd way, relieving. That’s because he lifts the nationalist veil from our eyes. To peer through the propaganda that we are force fed from birth about the ideas of the nobility of the warrior and the holiness of the cause.

It is a process that shouldn’t be comforting or enjoyable. And I’m relieved that there are people in the world like Hedges who aren’t afraid to tell us the unabashed truth in the aims of maybe, just maybe, we can care enough to try to make a better world.

an essential, important work

Should be required reading in every school, especially here in America. Just like "A People's History" imploded the myth of American exceptionalism, this book implodes the myth of war's nobility and righteousness. War is all-consuming and brutal, leaving physical and emotional ruin in its wake. Hedges brings this knowledge to bear through his own long struggle with war's potent addictive highs.

Thought provoking

Hedges raises and shares views of war not normally articulated. The mixing of research and personal observations adds to the perspectives.

War

I have done some research on war and found this book to be an excellent complement to my research. I wanted to read more about the antidote to war LOVE in his own life but this still a very good read!

Another brilliant read by Hedges

Chris Hedges is a brilliant writer who’s wisdom from experience coupled with his keen knowledge of literature should be read by all. (Including all in government positions)

This book clarifies why war is so seductive for some & why it's never worth it.

I liked the honest, introspective tone of tthe book. Chris Hedges is an excellent writer, with depth, insight, and clarity. This book recalls his experience as a war correspondent in most of the violent conflicts in the past decades. He chronicles the depth of feeling, the fear and the addiction to danger that people develop in war zones. The intensity and zest for life that is ever present, when you could die at any moment. He describes the trauma and the violence of war and how ephemeral and fleeting civilized society can be, and how strong the bonds of friendship when your lives are on the line. The constant adrenaline and the clarity one feels when the bullets are flying and bombs are dropping, is unparalleled, and makes normal life seem dull, making soldiers and journalists gravitate towards the despair filled refreshing excitement of war, that leaves one scarred, with terrible nightmares, that repeat, as does the memory of life in the zones of death. He recalls life in Palestine, where for decades the people. there, never know when an Israeli military action will hit one's neighborhood. He has been there during the regular "mowing the lawn attacks", when suddenly out of the blue the missiles may hit the newsroom you're working out of, or take out the apartment building across the street, where suddenly you hear whistling of incoming missles and try to take cover, a place where you could lose your life at any moment, but the people understand this and give thanks for each day they survive. He describes how vivid life becomes, making civilized life dull, or perhaps jading the experience of those subjected to war. The fog of war makes life cheap, and is deeply traumatic. people you see one day, the next are corpses, nothing is certain, but is addictive and traumatises everyone that it touches.