Napalm is a brilliantly conceived, masterfully executed, and deeply disturbing book. Robert M. Neer offers a vivid examination of the military-technological partnership that drives the evolution of warfare, with moral considerations lagging far behind. -- Andrew J. Bacevich, editor of The Short American Century: A Postmortem
Robert M. Neer is an attorney and Core Lecturer in the History Department at Columbia University.
Neer systematically follows the story of napalm that originally
empowered an often outnumbered American military to fight far
abroad against the Japanese, and later, North Koreans, Chinese and
Vietnamese--only to become a byword for the pathologies of the
military-industrial complex of the United States...Neer is often
highly critical of the American use of napalm; yet his narrative of
its origins, production and use over the past seven decades is not
a jeremiad, but learned, fair and historically accurate...Neer is
especially insightful in showing how Vietnam was a turning point in
public perceptions about napalm...For all its infernal
destructiveness and the terror it instills in hapless ground
troops, this savage weapon has probably not changed the thinking
behind age-old warfare all that much.
--Victor Davis Hanson"Times Literary Supplement" (07/19/2013)
Robert M. Neer's clear-eyed and harrowing new account surveys this
infamous technology from both perspectives. This is history, in a
literal sense, from above and below. Using napalm as a symbol for
American global influence acutely demonstrates the political
trajectory of a superpower, from impetuous upstart to tortured
giant to--finally--chastened hegemon.
--Thai Jones"Dissent" (07/01/2013)
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