Child Soldiers: From Violence to Protection [Hardcover]

Michael Wessells (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2007

Compelling and humane, this book reveals the lives of the 300,000 child soldiers around the world, challenging stereotypes of them as predators or a lost generation. Kidnapped or lured by the promise of food, protection, revenge, or a better life, children serve not only as combatants but as porters, spies, human land mine detectors, and sexual slaves. Nearly one-third are girls, and Michael Wessells movingly reveals the particular dangers they face from pregnancy, childbirth complications, and the rejection they and their babies encounter in their local contexts.

Based mainly on participatory research and interviews with hundreds of former child soldiers worldwide, Wessells allows these ex-soldiers to speak for themselves and reveal the enormous complexity of their experiences and situations. The author argues that despite the social, moral, and psychological wounds of war, a surprising number of former child soldiers enter civilian life, and he describes the healing, livelihood, education, reconciliation, family integration, protection, and cultural supports that make it possible. A passionate call for action, Child Soldiers pushes readers to go beyond the horror stories to develop local and global strategies to stop this theft of childhood.

(20070401)

Editorial Reviews

Review

This is a crucial book. Human rights activists, physicians, and citizens around the world recognize the need to find effective interventions for child soldiers, but up to now we have lacked systematic information about them. Wessells discusses all of the major concerns: how boys and girls are recruited or enticed into guerrilla groups; how they are affected by violence, deprivation, and abuse; the role of culture and healing; and the actions we must take to save youngsters from guerrilla groups and send them home. Child Soldiers will be a cornerstone for research--and for action.
--Neil Boothby, Director, Program on Forced Migration and Health, Columbia University (20070501)

Provides a thorough introduction to the myriad problems and possibilities associated with an estimated 300,000 children who participate in military units on almost every continent.
--P. G. Conway (Choice 20070601)

In the past few years, the body of literature devoted to the use of child soldiers--political and security analyses, sociological explorations, case studies of specific conflicts--has been growing. But largely unheard in these books are the voices of the child soldiers themselves...[Michael Wessells] now fills that gap in the literature with an admirable work based not just on his own extensive research but on interviews with hundreds of former child soldiers.
--J. Peter Pham (Wilson Quarterly )

Given the recent bestselling memoir of a child soldier, Wessells's empirically driven book is a timely contribution of psychological insight that debunks gloomy notions of child soldiers as damaged goods beyond repair. Wessells's optimism is buoyed with accounts of former child soldiers successfully reintegrated into civilian life. He links the need to protect children in conflict to the foundation of peaceful societies...The discussion on the difficulty of separating victims from perpetrators underlines Wessels's main point that children soldiers are the result of adult exploitation of children...This is an important book for students of all levels interested in children's rights and post-conflict reconstruction, and serves as a guide to practitioners working in this area.
--David K. Androff (Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare )

About the Author

Michael Wessells is an experienced child protection practitioner with Christian Children's Fund and Professor at Columbia University and Randolph-Macon College.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 302 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press; 1 edition (January 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674023595
• ISBN-13: 978-0674023598
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,557,054 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Crucial Book on Child Soldiers, March 16, 2007

By 

M Gardner (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Child Soldiers: From Violence to Protection (Hardcover)

This book is a "must read" for anyone interested in the complex situation of child soldiers. The book is engaging and compelling, bringing forth the voices and experiences of hundreads of child soldiers from around the world, including Angola, Sierra Leone, Colombia, Uganda, Sri Lanka, and Afghanistan. It goes beyond the usual stereotypes of such children as "victims" or "perpetrators", carefully detailing the many and varied roles that children participate in -- from human land mine detectors to caregivers of the babies born into armed groups. The plight of girl soldiers and their unique experiences as mothers at a tender young age -- the result of rape by their abductors who are also their "husbands" -- is eye opening and heart rendering.

The book carefully documents the numerous ways children come to be in armed groups (including abduction, fleeing abusive families, volunteering because of ideology, and having no other options because of grinding poverty). Michael Wessells is a psychologist, and writes compellingly of the social and emotional toll that is exacted on these chidlren. He also writes of the children's resilience, and how, despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles, many children actively cope with their situation.

In spite of the horrors that these children experience, the book offers hope. It provides moving examples of children re-entering their communities and once again becoming part of the fabric of community life -- as students, as citizens, as peacemakers, and as agents of social change. A far cry from categorizing these children as a "lost generation", the book contends that we have the tools and knowledge to stop the wanton exploitation of children as soldiers, and provides the reader with hopeful strategies and initiatives that have worked.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Important Book if you want to know more about Child Soldiers, April 4, 2007

By 

Deborah Wagner (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Child Soldiers: From Violence to Protection (Hardcover)

The topic of child soldiers has now received the attention it deserves. Beah's moving book of his experience as a child soldier in Sierra Leone has now opened the eyes of many. For those who want to know more, Wessells' book takes us into the lives of children worldwide -- Sri Lanka, Angola, Columbia, East Timior, Afghanistan and more. Child soldiering is complex, and the author takes us into the many ways children are recruited, the roles they play, and the facets of their day-to-day lives. Especially compelling are the voices of children, woven in throughout the book. In the end, practical guidance is given -- there is hope for concerned citizens who want to bring an end to the exploitation of children who are forced to serve in the wars of adults.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars review, December 6, 2007

By 

Jennifer K. West (Virginia Beach, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Child Soldiers: From Violence to Protection (Hardcover)

Michael Wessells is a wonderful author and even more wonderful as a human. I went to Randolph-Macon college and had the change to take a class with him. I remember leaving class frequently in tears at the things that occur in other parts of the world. I would be upset at an increase in tuition and the thought of student loans, and the lecture would be child soldiers and infants as rape victims in war zones. While reading, I can hear him and feel like I sitting around the table in the psyc classroom - Mike never lectured from the front of the room. The whole class sat around the table and had a discussion format. Again, heart changing book by a world changing professor.