Mary L. Dudziak

Discover the human side of atomic testing with this graphic history book. Doom Towns highlights the people and environments impacted by weapons innovation during the Cold War. Explore primary sources and gain access to archives to form your own informed conclusions about this complex and controversial topic.

"The Mountains Sing" is a poignant multigenerational tale set in Vietnam, weaving in the country's tumultuous 20th century history. Tracing the story of the Tran family from the Land Reform of the 1950s to the Vietnam War, this novel explores the human costs of conflict from the perspective of the Vietnamese people. Through the lens of strong women like Tran Dieu Lan and her granddaughter Hương, Nguyen Phan Que Mai's debut novel brings to life the power of resilience and hope in a vivid and gripping narrative.

This thought-provoking book explores how the category of "military-age males" has been used to identify insurgent combatants in US military operations since September 11, 2001. The author highlights biases related to gender, age, religion, and race that have led to misinterpretations of the battlespace and contributed to the deterioration of civilian protection. The book also examines the links between counterinsurgency and drone warfare, and emerging concerns with algorithmic discrimination leading to the misidentification of civilians as combatants.

"The Politics of Peace" explores the emergence of peace as both an ideal and a practical aspect of international relations during the early cold war. This book highlights the interactions between three global actors: cold war states, peace advocacy groups, and anti-colonial liberationists. These transnational networks challenged and eventually undermined the cold war order by addressing the violence of national liberation movements in the Third World. "The Politics of Peace" reveals the fractures that emerged within each cold war camp as activists challenged their own governments and each other over the best ways to achieve global peace.

"Invisible Scars" delves into the history of psychological trauma during the Korean War, specifically the Commonwealth Division's psychiatric care systems. While the division successfully treated soldiers to return to duty, it failed to adequately support those returning to civilian life. Author Meghan Fitzpatrick also addresses current disability and compensation issues surrounding psychological trauma. A fascinating exploration of an often-ignored topic, this book sheds light on the lasting effects of war on soldiers' mental health.