Sowing the Dragon's Teeth: Land Mines and the Global Legacy of War [Hardcover]

Philip C. Winslow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 4, 1997

Each year an estimated twenty-six thousand people are killed or maimed by land mines-more than 100 million of them sown like the mythical dragon's teeth in over seventy countries. These weapons are designed to maim soldiers, but most victims are civilians, especially the rural poor. Winslow writes about these people and the Campaign to Ban Landmines (which was awarded The Nobel Peace Prize in 1997). He tells about the efforts to pull the dragon's teeth from the earth so that it can be restored to those who live on it.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Kirkus Reviews

A globe-trotting journalist's harrowing rundown on the horrific toll taken by land mines long after the wars during which they were laid have ended. Drawing largely on his own experiences in Angola, Winslow provides both big-picture perspectives and anecdotal evidence on this ghastly threat afflicting much of the Third World. All told, roughly 110 million mines (anti-tank and anti-personnel) remain buried in Afghanistan, Cambodia, Egypt, Israel, Korea, Mozambique, Somalia, Vietnam, and scores of other countries. Every year, these devices kill or maim 26,000 people, virtually all of them civilians. Worse yet, the lethal legacy continues to grow; guerilla forces are laying one million new mines each year, according to UN estimates. Thanks to their capacity to channel and contain enemy troops in combat zones at a comparatively modest cost, land mines have become weapons of choice for regular and insurgent armies. But as the author explains in his reportage on clearance crews dispatched by humanitarian organizations, it's a lot easier and cheaper to put sensitive packages of explosives below the surface of the ground than it is to remove or disarm them. Nor, as he documents in bleak detail, are the doctors and nurses posted to battlegrounds by private relief agencies able to do much more than perform basic amputations for those who survive a land-mine blast. Covered as well is the indifference of corrupt governments to the plight of innocents crippled or dismembered by accidental detonations, the dearth of crutches (let alone prosthetics) in areas where the need is desperate, the chilling effect of live minefields on once-bustling population centers, and the emergent Canadian-led campaign to ban the use of land mines. An eloquent case against ordnance that was characterized by no less an authority than William Tecumseh Sherman as ``not war, but murder.'' (b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Review

Winslow endeavors to tell this story as a responsible journalist, which turns out to be both the book's strength and its signal weakness. He draws a good deal of information together and presents it in a straightforward and balanced way. But when he tells the stories of the daily lives of the people most affected by land mines, he does so from an unbreachable distance. There are things that are simply not available to conventional reportage. -- The Nation, David Levi Strauss

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Beacon Press (September 4, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807050040
• ISBN-13: 978-0807050040
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,699,147 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Landmine statistics transformed into human reality, September 26, 1997

By 

[e-mail] (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sowing the Dragon's Teeth: Land Mines and the Global Legacy of War (Hardcover)

Dragons' Teeth? Landmines? One and the same. Statistics? People? One and the same. Philip Winslow has taken the seemingly unending plethora of statistics regarding landmine incidents, One every twenty minutes of every day of every year somewhere in the world, and put a human face on the problem. For example: An Angolan woman who has lost a leg to a landmine, and whose brother, as a soldier, placed landmines in the ground in the same country. An American student in Israel who loses a leg while camping. British deminers now working to clear the land. A Canadian Peacekeeper killed in Croatia while removing landmines. All statistics, but also all very real people. And Winslow has the ability to take you to the site of their encounters with these deadly weapons and experience it for yourself. All that is missing is the noise, the smell, the confusion, the anguish - and the pain. A chilling reminder of the monumental problem facing the world community; to rid the land of these "Silent Soldiers," left buried in the ground long after the conflict is over and the human soldiers either have been buried, or have departed for home. And a reminder that Nationality, place of birth, sex, age or affluence makes no difference to the "Silent Soldier" about to be trod upon and detonated. "Must reading" for those North Americans who believe they are not affected, nor will they be affected, by the mines buried in the ground in some far off place. I can unequivocally state that landmines can and do affect "North Americans". My son happens to be the Canadian Peacekeeper mentioned above, and one might therefore say I am biased in regards to this publication. However, having read many reports and publications about landmines in the three years since his death, I have found none that has the ability to pique my interest and compels me to read on, as has "Sowing the Dragon's Teeth." Bravo, Philip Winslow!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars real saints, October 16, 2001

By 

greglor "greglor" (Baltimore, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sowing the Dragon's Teeth: Land Mines and the Global Legacy of War (Paperback)

If there are saints in the world, it is the people who clear minefields for a living. This book is a real education into the lives of mine victims and those heroes who clear minefields for others. The stories it tells are very human stories. Very moving, and gives me an understanding of what life is like in areas of serious conflict in the world (with a particular focus on Angola). My only complaint about this book is that the writing could be better (don't get me wrong, it's not bad, it just seems a little choppy). Everyone should read this book. It's a real education into what lives are like for people in Angola.