Unwomanly Face of War
#1644 of 2,654 all-time
Unwomanly Face of War
Svetlana Alexievich
4 people recommended it in 4 threads, 2018–2022.
What people on Hacker News said
Her work incidentally illuminates how we systematically lack certain accounts of history. The implication is that we miss pretty much everything "important", when we read history through the traditional lenses of the armed conflict and politics.
Statistically-speaking, most people do not spend their lives in the politburo, or in the general staff of the army, but those statistically-significant people do not usually write the history we read.
In particular, her very humble voice for the feminine experience (one that's historically absent from political and "military" histories) is enlightening and provocative.
The world might be a better place, if only every person in a position of power spent some period of their life ruminating this tragic corner of world literature.
Hard to get through at points due to the subject, obviously.
Where it comes up
- Ask HN: What are some of the best books you have read in 2022? 2022 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: What's the best book you read in 2021? 2021 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before? 2020 · 1 recommendation
- Ask HN: Favorite nonfiction books of 2018? 2018 · 1 recommendation