A History of Bombing

On November 1, 1911, Lieutenant Cavarotti leaned out of the cockpit of his delicate aircraft and, holding a Haasen hand grenade, began one of the most devastating military tactics of the twentieth century: aerial bombing. This is but one of many points of entry Lindqvist presents in this cleverly constructed, innovative history. Structuring the book in a way that re-enacts the disruptions of history caused by the advent of the bomb, Lindqvist offers his readers a series of ways into and paths through this re-examination of a century of war. In the manner of his acclaimed ‘Exterminate All the Brutes’ and ‘Desert Divers’, Lindqvist here turns his distinctively fresh, inquisitive eye and tireless moral sense on the fascinating histories behind the development of air power, bombs and the laws of war and international justice, demonstrating how the practices of two world wars were born of colonial warfare.