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History General

Inventing Collateral Damage

Civilian Casualties, War, and Empire

edited by Stephen J. Rockel & Rick Halpern

Publisher
Between the Lines
Initial publish date
Nov 2009
Category
General, History & Theory
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781897071120
    Publish Date
    Nov 2009
    List Price
    $39.95

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Description

The term collateral damage, a euphemism for civilian casualty, came into usage during the Vietnam War and over several decades became entrenched in U.S. armed forces jargon. But long before the phrase was coined there were non-combatant victims of wars.

Emerging from a major international conference on the subject, Inventing Collateral Damage is a collection of excellent and varied studies of civilian casualty through history: in early modern Europe, 18th- and 19th-century North America, colonial and post-colonial conflicts, the world wars of the 20th century, and the present day.

The collection includes an impressive historical interpretation of the topic by Stephen Rockel and a sensitive conclusion by the noted historian Natalie Zemon Davis.

About the authors

 

Stephen J. Rockel is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Toronto. He is a specialist in Sub-Saharan Africa with particular interests in East African social history as well as colonial and post-colonial conflicts in Africa and Asia.

 

Stephen J. Rockel's profile page

 

Rick Halpern is the Bissell-Heyd Chair of American Studies and a Professor in the Department of History at the University of Toronto. He has written extensively about race and labour in a number of national and transnational contexts.

 

Rick Halpern's profile page