Publisher Description

This book, a collection of Alex Danchev's essays on the theme of art, war and terror, offers a sustained demonstration of the way in which works of art can help us to explore the most difficult ethical and political issues of our time: war, terror, extermination, torture and abuse. It takes seriously the idea of the artist as moral witness to this realm, considering war photography, for example, as a form of humanitarian intervention. War poetry, war films and war diaries are also considered in a broad view of art, and of war. Kafka is drawn upon to address torture and abuse in the war on terror; Homer is utilised to analyse current talk of 'barbarisation'. The paintings of Gerhard Richter are used to investigate the terrorists of the Baader-Meinhof group, while the photographs of Don McCullin and the writings of Vassily Grossman and Primo Levi allow the author to propose an ethics of small acts of altruism. This book examines the nature of war over the last century, from the Great War to a particular focus on the current 'Global War on Terror'. It investigates what it means to be human in war, the cost it exacts and the ways of coping.Several of the essays therefore have a biographical focus.

Back Cover

On Art and War and TerrorAlex Danchev'The imaginative transformation of human life is the means by which we can most truly grasp and comprehend it.'That is the credo and manifesto of this book. The words are Seamus Heaney's. 'Whatever is given', he writes in his own idiom, 'can always be reimagined, however four-square/Plank-thick, hull-stupid and out of its time/It happens to be.' The essays collected here seek to investigate these claims. They put the imagination to work, in the service of historical, political and ethical inquiry. Employing its second sight, they piggy-back on its moral benefits.The nobility of poetry, says Wallace Stevens, is a violence from within that protects us from a violence without. This is a book about violence of both kinds. It traffics in war poetry, war photography, war films, war stories, war diaries and the like, but also in war itself: in blood - blood like a carwash, as Christopher Logue's Homer has it - and therefore in political legitimacy, moral authority, civility, depravity, terror, torture, honour and conscience; not to speak of strange things like active passivity and senseless kindness. The violence within is illuminating. The violence without is unrelenting. We need all the protection we can get.Alex Danchev is Professor of International Relations at the University of Nottingham. He is the author of a number of widely acclaimed biographies, of Field Marshal Sir John Dill, Oliver Franks, Basil Liddell Hart and Georges Braque, and co-editor of the bestselling War Diaries of Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke.

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On Art and War and TerrorAlex Danchev'The imaginative transformation of human life is the means by which we can most truly grasp and comprehend it.'That is the credo and manifesto of this book. The words are Seamus Heaney's. 'Whatever is given', he writes in his own idiom, 'can always be reimagined, however four-square/Plank-thick, hull-stupid and out of its time/It happens to be.' The essays collected here seek to investigate these claims. They put the imagination to work, in the service of historical, political and ethical inquiry. Employing its second sight, they piggy-back on its moral benefits.The nobility of poetry, says Wallace Stevens, is a violence from within that protects us from a violence without. This is a book about violence of both kinds. It traffics in war poetry, war photography, war films, war stories, war diaries and the like, but also in war itself: in blood - blood like a carwash, as Christopher Logue's Homer has it - and therefore in political legitimacy, moral authority, civility, depravity, terror, torture, honour and conscience; not to speak of strange things like active passivity and senseless kindness. The violence within is illuminating. The violence without is unrelenting. We need all the protection we can get.Alex Danchev is Professor of International Relations at the University of Nottingham. He is the author of a number of widely acclaimed biographies, of Field Marshal Sir John Dill, Oliver Franks, Basil Liddell Hart and Georges Braque, and co-editor of the bestselling War Diaries of Field Marshal Lord Alanbrooke.

Author Biography

Alex Danchev is Professor of International Relations at the University of St Andrews.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Out of the Marvellous, or, Scholarship and the Magic Arts; 1. The Artist and the Terrorist, or, The Paintable and the Unpaintable: Gerhard Richter and the Baader-Meinhof Group; 2. The Face, or, Senseless Kindness: War Photography and the Ethics of Responsibility; 3. Provenance, or, Authenticity: The Guitar Player and the Arc of a Life; 4. Broomstick Horrors, or, The Fog-Walker in the Wood: Keeping up Appearances in the Great War; 5. The Strategy of Still Life, or, Art and Current Affairs: Georges Braque and the Occupation; 6. All This Happened, or, The Real Waugh: Sword of Honour and the Literature of the Second World War; 7. The Secret Life, or, The Soldier's Tale: Military Diaries; 8. Like a Dog, or, Animal House on the Night Shift: Kafka and Abu Ghraib; 9. It's All Fucked Up, or, The Non-Fiction Horror Movie:The Cinema and the War on Terror; 10. Waiting for the Barbarians, or, The Hospitality of War: Civilization and Barbarism in the War on Terror; Acknowledgements; Index.

Review

On Art and War and Terror collects Alex Danchev's beautifully lucid and thoughtful essays on the most difficult issues of our age and, in particular, the nature of humanity in times of conflict. -- Karen Shook Times Higher Education A Times Higher Education Book of the Week (September 2009). This collection of essays looks at first sight like one of those books of mostly previously published work that have been hung on a frame to give the impression of unity. But it is, in fact, a much more powerful, united and beautifully strange book than that. While academics are frequently exhorted to aspire to interdisciplinary work, this often boils down to tacking a discussion of a novel on to a piece of historical writing, or making reference to a few events to contextualise a picture. Real interdisciplinary work goes on when there is something unifying and unique beyond, or perhaps below, the academy's usual disciplinary boundaries. This is the case with Alex Danchev's work, and with this book. -- Robert Eaglestone, Royal Holloway, University of London Times Higher Education The range of these beautifully crafted essays is often dazzling. At his best, Danchev reveals himself to be a gifted and profound essayist. -- Bryan Cheyette The Independent Alex Danchev's series of essays remind us why he is one of the most perceptive and witty scholars writing in Britain today. -- Andrew Roberts The Sunday Telegraph (Reviews Editor) One of the most important books I have had the pleasure to read in a long time... When reading this thoughtful and thought-provoking book terms that come to mind include lucid, illuminating, mesmerizing, all of which are analytically weak but indicative nevertheless of what makes this book such a profound reading experience... The author is not impressed by disciplinary borders: borders are there to be ignored, frontiers are meeting-places. Art thinks. Art makes us think. Art makes us think otherwise. Art helps us make a judgement, a moral judgement. -- Frank Moller, University of Tampere Millennium: Journal of International Studies On Art and War and Terror collects Alex Danchev's beautifully lucid and thoughtful essays on the most difficult issues of our age and, in particular, the nature of humanity in times of conflict. A Times Higher Education Book of the Week (September 2009). This collection of essays looks at first sight like one of those books of mostly previously published work that have been hung on a frame to give the impression of unity. But it is, in fact, a much more powerful, united and beautifully strange book than that. While academics are frequently exhorted to aspire to interdisciplinary work, this often boils down to tacking a discussion of a novel on to a piece of historical writing, or making reference to a few events to contextualise a picture. Real interdisciplinary work goes on when there is something unifying and unique beyond, or perhaps below, the academy's usual disciplinary boundaries. This is the case with Alex Danchev's work, and with this book. The range of these beautifully crafted essays is often dazzling. At his best, Danchev reveals himself to be a gifted and profound essayist. Alex Danchev's series of essays remind us why he is one of the most perceptive and witty scholars writing in Britain today. One of the most important books I have had the pleasure to read in a long time... When reading this thoughtful and thought-provoking book terms that come to mind include lucid, illuminating, mesmerizing, all of which are analytically weak but indicative nevertheless of what makes this book such a profound reading experience... The author is not impressed by disciplinary borders: borders are there to be ignored, frontiers are meeting-places. Art thinks. Art makes us think. Art makes us think otherwise. Art helps us make a judgement, a moral judgement.

Long Description

This book, a collection of Alex Danchev's essays on the theme of art, war and terror, newly available in paperback, offers a sustained demonstration of the way in which works of art can help us to explore the most difficult ethical and political issues of our time: war, terror, extermination, torture and abuse.It takes seriously the idea of the artist as moral witness to this realm, considering war photography, for example, as a form of humanitarian intervention. War poetry, war films and war diaries are also considered in a broad view of art, and of war. Kafka is drawn upon to address torture and abuse in the war on terror; Homer is utilised to analyse current talk of 'barbarisation'. The paintings of Gerhard Richter are used to investigate the terrorists of the Baader-Meinhof group, while the photographs of Don McCullin and the writings of Vassily Grossman and Primo Levi allow the author to propose an ethics of small acts of altruism.This book examines the nature of war over the last century, from the Great War to a particular focus on the current 'Global War on Terror'. It investigates what it means to be human in war, the cost it exacts and the ways of coping. Several of the essays therefore have a biographical focus.

Review Quote

The range of these beautifully crafted essays is often dazzling. At his best, Danchev reveals himself to be a gifted and profound essayist.

Description for Reader

This book, a collection of Alex Danchev's essays on the theme of art, war and terror, offers a sustained demonstration of the way in which works of art can help us to explore the most difficult ethical and political issues of our time: war, terror, extermination, torture and abuse. It takes seriously the idea of the artist as moral witness to this realm, considering war photography, for example, as a form of humanitarian intervention. War poetry, war films and war diaries are also considered in a broad view of art, and of war. Kafka is drawn upon to address torture and abuse in the war on terror; Homer is utilised to analyse current talk of 'barbarisation'. The paintings of Gerhard Richter are used to investigate the terrorists of the Baader-Meinhof group, while the photographs of Don McCullin and the writings of Vassily Grossman and Primo Levi allow the author to propose an ethics of small acts of altruism. This book examines the nature of war over the last century, from the Great War to a particular focus on the current 'Global War on Terror'. It investigates what it means to be human in war, the cost it exacts and the ways of coping. Several of the essays therefore have a biographical focus.

Description for Sales People

Catalogue: See NIPShoutlineAlex Danchev demonstrates how works of art can help us to explore the most difficult ethical and political issues of our timeMain DescriptionThis book, a collection of Alex Danchev's essays on the theme of art, war and terror, offers a sustained demonstration of the way in which works of art can help us to explore the most difficult ethical and political issues of our time: war, terror, extermination, torture and abuse. It takes seriously the idea of the artist as moral witness to this realm, considering war photography, for example, as a form of humanitarian intervention. War poetry, war films and war diaries are also considered in a broad view of art, and of war. This book examines the nature of war over the last century, from the Great War to a particular focus on the current 'Global War on Terror'. It investigates what it means to be human in war, the cost it exacts and the ways of coping.

Description for Teachers/Educators

Politics, History, International Relations, Cultural Studies, Art, Film, Photography, Literature. Course titles will include Art and Politics; Literature and Politics. Examples of specific courses include:Goldsmiths, Department of Politics: MA in Art and Politics (Dr Bernadette Buckley)Birkbeck, Faculty of Continuing Education: Art and Politics module (Dr Nickolas Lambrianou)Cambridge, Pembroke College: Art and Politics (Dr Marian Kant)Oxford, School of Modern History: final year special subject Politics, Art and CultureYork, History MA: Politics, History and ArtCentral St Martin's College of Art and Design, lifelong learning course: Art and Politics (Dean Kenning)St Andrews, School of Art History: Post-1945 Art and Politics (Natalie Adamson)Glasgow, Art History: Art, Politics, Transgressions (Debbie Lewes)Nottingham, Politics: level 4 module Art and War (Alex Danchev)

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