But beware: the author, who deftly mixes large and small story recounts horrific episodes with surgical precision as containing quantities of blood and guts. These stories, which look like atrocities from African tribal wars, need to be read by informed adults. Having had my childhood rocked by similar stories, horrific images can haunt you all your life.
Yet these stories are necessary, they give life to cars impressive statistics. All this sheds new light on all post-World War and its consequences today. These tragic events are dissected with an absolutely neutral and professional look. Some felt unease that grips the author when he speaks of the British involvement in the Greek civil war. Nevertheless, given that the author is English, you can not blame him a biased approach to these horrors that primarily concern the rest of the European continent.
In his final chapter "Conclusions" (I read the original version of "savage continent"), the author evokes what is called the "duty of memory" using the quotation from Winston Churchill (as Keith Lowe would quote George Santayana): "A people that forgets its past is condemned to relive it." The author opposes the perverse use of the "duty of memory" by those who want to create persistent hatred in order to serve their political agenda. One could almost say that a people that does not forget its past is condemned to relive it ... Naturally Keith Lowe disagrees with this idea. He invites us to go in search of the truth (especially regarding statistics), expose to the view of all and then "Put That truth to bed" .... because the past should not poison the present !!!
