War

The day when nobody comes back from a war it will be because the war has at last been properly read more

The day when nobody comes back from a war it will be because the war has at last been properly organized.

You know — we've had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being fought by read more

You know — we've had to imagine the war here, and we have imagined that it was being fought by aging men like ourselves. We had forgotten that the wars were fought by babies. When I saw those freashly shaved faces, it was a shock. 'My God, my God —' I said to myself, 'it's the Children's Crusade.'

Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, he began at the moment read more

Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, he began at the moment that it broke out, believing that it would be a great war, and more memorable than any that had preceded it.

Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima.... The force from which the sun draws its power read more

Sixteen hours ago an American airplane dropped one bomb on Hiroshima.... The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed against those who brought war to the Far East.

When every autumn people said it could not last through the winter, and when every spring there was still no read more

When every autumn people said it could not last through the winter, and when every spring there was still no end in sight, only the hope that out of it all some good would accrue to mankind kept men and nations fighting. When at last it was over, the war had many diverse results and one dominant one transcending all others: disillusion.

Gaily! gaily! close our ranks!
Arm! Advance!
Hope of France!
Gaily! gaily! closed our read more

Gaily! gaily! close our ranks!
Arm! Advance!
Hope of France!
Gaily! gaily! closed our ranks!
Onward! Onward! Gauls and Franks!

The inevitableness, the idealism, and the blessing of war, as an
indispensable and stimulating law of development, must be read more

The inevitableness, the idealism, and the blessing of war, as an
indispensable and stimulating law of development, must be
repeatedly emphasized.

All's fair in love and war.

All's fair in love and war.

The history of those who shed those other tears, the history of those anonymous millions, is what Terkel wants readers read more

The history of those who shed those other tears, the history of those anonymous millions, is what Terkel wants readers and listeners to come away with. What's it like to be that goofy little soldier, scared stiff, with his bayonet aimed at Christ? What's it like to have been a woman in a defense-plant job during World War II? What's it like to be a kid at the front lines? It's all funny and tragic at the same time.

O great corrector of enormous times,
Shaker of o'er-rank states, thou grand decider
Of dusty and old read more

O great corrector of enormous times,
Shaker of o'er-rank states, thou grand decider
Of dusty and old titles, that healest with blood
The earth when it is sick, and curest the world
O' the pleurisy of people.