Books Worth Taking To The Worst Places

This is the start of an occasional series asking authors and journalists their recommendations for books related to humanitarian relief.

The list below was written by Charles London, author of the incredible book One Day the Soldiers Came: Voices of Children In War, which tells the story of child soldiers in Africa, Burma and the Balkans through their own words.

Charles' next book, Far from Zion, comes out later this year. He also blogs at Far from Zion: Musings from a Post-Diaspora Life.

Who needs SIPA - or any graduate school - when you have a library card?

People who are interested in humanitarian affairs often ask me what they should read to learn more about humanitarian aid and modern warfare, or what I think essential reading for aid workers and activists should be.

Aside from books, there are many electronic resources, blogs, websites, and journals that interested people could be reading, but most of us aren’t going to devour every new issue of Small Wars Journal (given that an increasing amount of U.S. foreign aid is handled by the military, perhaps we should, but I’m keeping my scope to books for this list).

Obviously, there are regionally specific books to add to this list, and plenty that are missing, so please feel free to add your ideas. This is just what came to mind as I typed this.

To get one's head around communal violence, I recommend as an opening primer:

- War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning by Chris Hedges and Virgil's The Aeneid, at least Book II, where Aeneas searches through Troy for his wife as the Greeks lay the city to waste. Virgil captured the panic of a refugee’s flight better than anyone I’ve read.

- A Problem From Hell, America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Powers is an important first step toward understanding the new anti-Genocide movement in America.

The recent 'Aid is killing Africa' discussion set off by the publicity around Dead Aid by Dambisa Moyo is nothing new, though perhaps the attention comes because she is herself from Africa.

There are also other quite good books related to the pitfalls of aid:

- Michael Maren's The Road to Hell is a searing indictment of the international aid program.

- In a similar vein are David Rieff’s A Bed For the Night, The Lords of Poverty by Graham Hancock, and Do No Harm: How Aid Can Support Peace-or War by Mary B. Anderson.

- For a little more even-handed exploration of the blessings and pitfalls of the humanitarian enterprise, Samantha Powers’ Chasing the Flame: Sergio Vieira de Mello and the Fight to Save the World is an excellent read and a powerful biography.

Aside from my own book, One Day the Soldiers Came, to grapple with the ever-present phenomenon of children on the battlefield and in the bush, Peter Singer's Children at War is a must-read, and Ishmael Beah's memoir, A Long Way Gone, provides a powerful first-hand account and makes a case that none of these children are beyond hope.

Other good reads in no particular order:

- Deep Economy: The Wealth of Communities and the Durable Future by Bill McKibben

- The End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs

- We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families by Philip Gourevitch

- Anything by Ryszard Kapuściński

- Anything Alex De Waal has written (especially Famine Crimes or Darfur: A New History of a Long War)

- Institutions and Ethnic Politics in Africa by Daniel Posner

- The Graves Are Not Yet Full: Race, Tribe And Power in the Heart of Africa by Bill Berkeley

- Forces for Good by Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant

I haven't read this one, but it just got a good review in the NYTimes, curious what others think:

-Saviors and Survivors: Darfur, Politics, and the War on Terror by Mahmood Mamdani

That's just a few randomly selected books/authors who've served me well. Other must reads?

And a bonus question: what are the essential pleasure reads you bring when traveling to extremely violent places?

(I have a fondness for Lee Child's Jack Reacher series, and Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Any sort of escapism will do though.)

[Image from paloozachronicles.blogspot.com]