Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T05:28:06.785Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Rereading The Iliad in a Time of War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 October 2020

Marianna Torgovnick
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

My recent book the war complex required rethinking the legacy of World War II. Called “the good war” in common parlance, World War II remains a potent and emotion-laden memory. But when it was over, fifty to eighty million people (estimates vary widely) had died—soldiers but also, and in greater numbers, civilians. Hitler's forces had murdered many innocents, and Japan had unleashed slaughter in China and Southeast Asia and bombed Pearl Harbor. But the Allies, the good guys in the tale, had killed roughly 600,000 German civilians and 400,000 Japanese (Sebald 3). So if World War II was necessary and justified, it was nonetheless terrible and even rotten.

Type
Correspondents at Large
Information
PMLA , Volume 124 , Issue 5: Special Topic War , October 2009 , pp. 1838 - 1841
Copyright
Copyright © Modern Language Association of America, 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Works Cited

Black Hawk Down. Dir. Ridley Scott. Columbia, 2001. Film.Google Scholar
Elizabeth, Bumiller. “The Reach of War: The President; Addressing Cadets, Bush Sees Parallels to World War II.” New York Times 3 June 2004: A1+. Print.Google Scholar
“Documented Civilian Deaths from Violence.” Iraq Body Count. Iraq Body Count, n.d. Web. 6 July 2009.Google Scholar
Glenn, Gray. The Warriors: Reflections on Men in Battle. New York: Harcourt, 1959. Print.Google Scholar
Craig, Hedges. War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning. New York: Public Affairs, 2002. Print.Google Scholar
Homer. The Iliad. Trans. Fagles, Robert. Introd. Knox, Bernard. New York: Viking; Penguin, 1990. Print.Google Scholar
John, Kerry. How Do You Ask a Man to Be the Last Man to Die in Vietnam? History News Network. George Mason U, n.d. Web. 7 July 2009.Google Scholar
Jed, Lewison. “Nielsen: Biden Scores Big on Iraq, Palin's ‘White Flag of Surrender’ Tanks.” Huffington Post. Huffington Post, 3 Oct. 2008. Web. 7 July 2009.Google Scholar
Richard, Nixon. President Nixon's Speech on “Vietnamization,” November 3, 1969. Vassar Coll., n.d. Web. 7 July 2009.Google Scholar
Samantha, Powers. “A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide. New York: Basic, 2002. Print.Google Scholar
Condoleezza, Rice. Interview by Wolf Blitzer. Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer. CNN.com. CNN, 8 Sept. 2008. Web. 7 July 2009.Google Scholar
Rummel, R. J. Death by Government. New Brunswick: Transaction, 1987. Print.Google Scholar
Saving Private Ryan. Dir. Steven Spielberg. DreamWorks, 1998. Film.Google Scholar
Sebald, W. G. “Air War and Literature: Zurich Lectures.” On the Natural History of Destruction. Trans. Bell, Anthea. New York: Random, 2003. 1–104. Print.Google Scholar
Marianna, Torgovnick. The War Complex: World War II in Our Time. 2005. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2008. Print.Google Scholar
“US Deaths by Month.” Icasualties.org. Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, n.d. Web. 6 July 2009.Google Scholar
“U.S. Wounded.” Icasualties.org. Iraq Coalition Casualty Count, n.d. Web. 6 July 2009.Google Scholar
Waltz with Bashir. Dir. Ari Folman. Sony, 2008. Film.Google Scholar