In a Dark Time

by Robert Jay Lifton

Book Overview

In a Dark Time is an anthology for the nuclear age, created by two professional psychologists who have ordered their material so that the successive selections reflect and comment on one another, compelling the reader to think about the insanity of war. This book draws on thoughts and writings from more than two millennia: poets from Sappho to Robert Lowell, dreamers from Saint John the Divine to Martin Luther King, Jr., statesmen from Seneca to Winston...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674445384
• ISBN13: 9780674445383
• Release Date: September 1984
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 1.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.9" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

"An emetic against war"

Even though it was originally meant for the Cold War, this book of poems, stories, and quotes about war still speaks to the wars going on today, whether in Iraq, Israel/Palestine, or the generic "war on terrorism" because the people in this book don't write about any specific war but rather about their experiences with and reflections on war in general. The authors of this book are a psychologist and a psychiatrist, so many of the selections reflect the way we humans think about war and death. Folks from all parts of recorded history are included from Lao-Tzu (6th century B.C.) to various world leaders and other people living today. There are world leaders such as Winston Churchill included as well as many writers and every day civilians and soliders. Unlike many other compilations where one can just open the book up and read a random page to get the feel of the book, this volume has been arranged in a specific order and under specific headlines such as "Words," "Enemies," "Only Part of Us Is Sane," and so on. It would be impossible to adequately describe the thought-provoking mood of this book without sharing a couple quotes: "Once a nation bases its security on an absolute weapon, such as the atom[ic] bomb, it becomes psychologically necessary to believe in an absolute enemy." -Patrick Blackett "'We sterilize the area prior to the insertion of the Revolutionary Development team'...says the colonel." -Mary McCarthy, Vietnam (in context, this quote is alluding to the way people disguise the real language of war, in this case killing all people in sight before occupying said area) A very thought-provoking book on the subject of war if there ever was one!