'Rich authoritative and highly readable ... [a] tour de force ' David Kynaston Chairman Mao
was a librarian. Stalin was a published poet. Evelyn Waugh served as a commando - before
leaving to write Brideshead Revisited. Since the advent of modern warfare books have all too
often found themselves on the frontline. In The Book at War acclaimed historian Andrew
Pettegree traces the surprising ways in which written culture - from travel guides and
scientific papers to Biggles and Anne Frank - has shaped and been shaped by the vast
conflicts of the modern age. From the American Civil War to the invasion of Ukraine books
authors and readers have gone to war - and in the process become both deadly weapons and our
most persuasive arguments for peace.
