Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace is a harvest of creative, redemptive storytelling—nonfiction, fiction, and poetry—spanning five wars and written by those most profoundly affected by it.
This poignant collection, compiled from Maxine Hong Kingston’s healing workshops, contains the distilled wisdom of survivors of five wars, including combatants, war widows, spouses, children, conscientious objectors, and veterans of domestic abuse.
Bosnia, once the proud multicultural heartland of Yugoslavia, its villages treasured for Ottoman-era mosques, arched stone bridges, and red-tiled roofs, lay in ruins in 1995, destroyed by three-and-a-half years of murder and rape known to the world as ethnic cleansing.
Dr. Demaris Wehr, Quaker, Jungian therapist, peacebuilder, and the author of Jung and Feminism (Routledge), came to Bosnia after the war to assist in peacebuilding trainings, and she returned several times to bear witness as survivors of the genocide told her their stories in one-on-one interviews. She asked each of them, “How did you make it through?”
Barbara Child put her heart and soul into a letter to her partner, Alan Morris, while he was at the cottage they shared in Florida and she was away at school in California. He was a Vietnam War veteran, and she was taking a seminary course on war—in particular, the Vietnam War. A little more than two years later, the war finally took its toll on Alan. He put a Colt .45 to his head and pulled the trigger.
That letter led to one thing, then another. Eventually, Barbara began analysis with a Jungian psychologist and shared the letter with him. She began talking more and more about Alan. She began writing more and more about Alan. From those writings came this book.
Cindy Sheehan lost her son, Spc. Casey Austin Sheehan, in an ambush in Sadr City, Baghdad, in early 2004. As information became available revealing that the war in Iraq was based on lies, she began speaking out against it and demanding the troops come home. In August 2005, she went to Texas, to ask President Bush to explain “the noble cause” for the war he cites in his speeches, and her efforts attracted thousands to create Camp Casey, and drew worldwide attention. This anti-war movement book is a clear, well-written statement of her case against the war and her plea for ending this senseless adventure.
Equal parts compelling memoir and call to action, Not One More Mother’s Child tells in Sheehan’s distinctive voice how historical events and personal tragedy transformed her from grieving mom to ardent activist.
