Thank God for the Atom Bomb, and Other Essays"This is not a book to promote tranquility, and readers in quest of peace of mind should look elsewhere," writes Paul Fussell in the foreword to this original, sharp, tart, and thoroughly engaging work. The celebrated author focuses his lethal wit on habitual euphemizers, artistically pretentious third-rate novelists, sexual puritans, and the "Disneyfiers of life". He moves from the inflammatory title piece on the morality of dropping the bomb on Hiroshima to a hilarious disquisition on the "naturist movement", to essays on the meaning of the Indy 500 race, on George Orwell, and on the shift in men's chivalric impulses toward their mothers. Fussell's "frighteningly acute eye for the manners, mores, and cultural tastes of Americans" (The New York Times Book Review) is abundantly evident in this entertaining dissection of the enemies of truth, beauty, and justice |
Contents
Thank God for the Atom Bomb | 1 |
An Exchange of Views | 23 |
The Uses of Innocence | 36 |
Copyright | |
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American artistic atom bomb battle beach Blunden British called century chivalric criticism D. H. Lawrence Daily Pennsylvanian dead Dirk Dirk's drivers E. M. Forster editor emotional ence enemy English essay experience feel Fussell genres German Hiroshima horror human imagine Indianapolis Indy infantry innocence invasion irony Japanese skulls killed Left Book Club literary live look marines means ment military Militia modern Modernist moral mother nature naturist never notes observes once one's Orwell Orwell's Pacific war pastoral Paul Fussell poem poet poetry political published race reader recalls Review satire says scene Second World Second World War seems sense Siegfried Sassoon Sister skeptical social soldiers someone Speedway style suggest T. S. Eliot there's things tion titled tourist traditional trenches troops understanding unpleasant facts wartime Wharton School Wilfred Owen women word writing young