Original, well researched, and yet emotionally

Sven Lindqvist records in a maze of passages the history of bombing from the air so after that instead of a list of known "major events" (Guernica, Coventry, Dresden, Hiroshima) creates a continuous development. He weaves cleverly own experiences and numerous finds from literary history and historical documents: particularly depressing about the fantasies of many authors in the early 20th century, the raving of an all-powerful super weapon that will just create a kind of peace through their incredible destructiveness. The murder of millions of civilians taken place without sentimentality in buying, and even welcomed.

Places special emphasis on the Lindqvist forgotten or repressed by the West early history of deliberate bombing of civilians as punishment rebellious colonial peoples. The low mass of bombs civilians was an accepted and practiced like means to ensure in the colonies for order - If it were not for Europeans, but only to "lower" peoples. The excesses of the bombing campaign in WW2 the author sees as a logical development of this racism, as to the completely different behavior of the USAF to declare against Germany and Japan. Lindqvist suggested the bombing this as a weapon that allowed to date in principle no distinction between attacking civilians and combatants - despite modern "precision bombs".

The book is aimed at a broad audience and are not pretending to be a sober military history. But this is precisely its strength: the author makes his personal opinion always explicitly, instead of hiding behind seemingly neutral analysis.