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Ghost Flames: Life and Death in a Hidden War, Korea 1950-1953 Hardcover – Illustrated, 27 October 2020
by Charles J. Hanley (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars 30 ratings
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Paperback
Publisher : PublicAffairs; 1st edition (27 October 2020)
Language : English
Hardcover : 528 pages
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Product description
Review
PRAISE FOR THE BRIDGE AT NO GUN RI: [A] truly heart-wrenching tale of survival and heroism...This is an inspiring book -- storytelling at its very, very best. Read it.
--Doug Stanton, author of In Harm's Way
[I]n a class to stand with such work as Hersey's Hiroshima and Keneally's Schindler's List...Powerful history.--Sydney Schanberg, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of The Death and Life of Dith Pran, basis of the film The Killing Fields
A wrenching story.--Kirkus Reviews (starred)
This account, expanded from their Pulitzer Prize-winning reportage, raises questions about military preparedness and civilian involvement that are as relevant today as they were a half a century ago.--The New Yorker
A sober and absorbing account of a very dark chapter in American military history...Meticulously researched, scrupulously fair, and exceptionally well-written...Fine reading and fine history.--Rick Atkinson, author of The Long Gray Line
Ghost Flames is a masterful, often brutal representation of the Korean War. Readers with a limited knowledge of the conflict will gain a deeper understanding of the complexities cast upon ordinary people, from the soldiers who fought to the civilians trying to escape. This historical account revitalizes old memories and provides an outlet for healing from the traumatic events suffered by the victims. It leaves the reader with the unmistakable realization that this unpopular war should not be forgotten.--Coffee or Die
"The book is a fast and engrossing haunting read that thoroughly educates while pulling on the heart strings."--The New York Journal of Books
A masterly new history...the accretion of astounding detail makes for a vivid, multilayered look at a deeply complicated war in which few emerged as heroic. A top-notch addition to the literature on the Korean War.--Kirkus Reviews (starred)
An extraordinary kaleidoscope of human experiences in a catastrophic forgotten war.--Library Journal Starred Review
Charles Hanley has written a people's history of the Korean War, a fascinating, illuminating and highly readable work that opens a new window on the experiences of ordinary people in a critically important, but mostly unknown, war. His narrative is unflinching in recounting the war's horrors, the crimes by all sides. Readers will learn much that is entirely new.
Product description
Review
PRAISE FOR THE BRIDGE AT NO GUN RI: [A] truly heart-wrenching tale of survival and heroism...This is an inspiring book -- storytelling at its very, very best. Read it.
--Doug Stanton, author of In Harm's Way
[I]n a class to stand with such work as Hersey's Hiroshima and Keneally's Schindler's List...Powerful history.--Sydney Schanberg, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of The Death and Life of Dith Pran, basis of the film The Killing Fields
A wrenching story.--Kirkus Reviews (starred)
This account, expanded from their Pulitzer Prize-winning reportage, raises questions about military preparedness and civilian involvement that are as relevant today as they were a half a century ago.--The New Yorker
A sober and absorbing account of a very dark chapter in American military history...Meticulously researched, scrupulously fair, and exceptionally well-written...Fine reading and fine history.--Rick Atkinson, author of The Long Gray Line
Ghost Flames is a masterful, often brutal representation of the Korean War. Readers with a limited knowledge of the conflict will gain a deeper understanding of the complexities cast upon ordinary people, from the soldiers who fought to the civilians trying to escape. This historical account revitalizes old memories and provides an outlet for healing from the traumatic events suffered by the victims. It leaves the reader with the unmistakable realization that this unpopular war should not be forgotten.--Coffee or Die
"The book is a fast and engrossing haunting read that thoroughly educates while pulling on the heart strings."--The New York Journal of Books
A masterly new history...the accretion of astounding detail makes for a vivid, multilayered look at a deeply complicated war in which few emerged as heroic. A top-notch addition to the literature on the Korean War.--Kirkus Reviews (starred)
An extraordinary kaleidoscope of human experiences in a catastrophic forgotten war.--Library Journal Starred Review
Charles Hanley has written a people's history of the Korean War, a fascinating, illuminating and highly readable work that opens a new window on the experiences of ordinary people in a critically important, but mostly unknown, war. His narrative is unflinching in recounting the war's horrors, the crimes by all sides. Readers will learn much that is entirely new.
--Bruce Cumings, Swift Distinguished Service Professor of History, University of Chicago, author of The Korean War: A History
Hanley paints an extraordinary portrait of the war's complexity and devastation. This is an essential account of America's forgotten war.--Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Hanley's genius is to tell this remarkable story from the perspective of twenty very different participants--ranging from a general to a grunt, from a refugee to a p.o.w. By deep reportorial digging and gripping in-the-moment narration, he has woven together the saga--sometimes heroic, often disturbing--of an enigmatic war as it really was.--Evan Thomas, author of Sea of Thunder and Ike's Bluff
In unforgettable fashion, Hanley, a Pulitzer Prize winner, tells the story of the Korean War, one of the most savage conflicts in history.--The New York Times Book Review
Mr. Hanley's granular approach, which makes such compelling reading.--The Wall Street Journal
Hanley paints an extraordinary portrait of the war's complexity and devastation. This is an essential account of America's forgotten war.--Publishers Weekly Starred Review
Hanley's genius is to tell this remarkable story from the perspective of twenty very different participants--ranging from a general to a grunt, from a refugee to a p.o.w. By deep reportorial digging and gripping in-the-moment narration, he has woven together the saga--sometimes heroic, often disturbing--of an enigmatic war as it really was.--Evan Thomas, author of Sea of Thunder and Ike's Bluff
In unforgettable fashion, Hanley, a Pulitzer Prize winner, tells the story of the Korean War, one of the most savage conflicts in history.--The New York Times Book Review
Mr. Hanley's granular approach, which makes such compelling reading.--The Wall Street Journal
Book Description
A narrative, character-driven account of the Korean War that sheds light on the atrocities and hardships suffered by all sides in the 'forgotten' conflict.
From the Publisher
Charles J. Hanley has reported from some 100 countries in his four-decade career at the Associated Press. His reporting on the No Gun Ri massacre of South Korean refugees in the hands of the U.S. military won him a Pulitzer Prize and Polk Award among other honors, and yielded his 2001 book, The Bridge at No Gun Ri. An expert on the Korean War, he regularly lectures and contributes scholarship on the conflict in academic journals. He lives in New York City.
About the Author
Charles J. Hanley has reported from some 100 countries in his four-decade career at the Associated Press. His reporting on the No Gun Ri massacre of South Korean refugees in the hands of the U.S. military won him a Pulitzer Prize and Polk Award among other honors, and yielded his 2001 book, The Bridge at No Gun Ri. An expert on the Korean War, he regularly lectures and contributes scholarship on the conflict in academic journals. He lives in New York City.
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Customer reviews
4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
30 global ratings
5 star 64%
4 star 17%
3 star 11%
2 star 0% (0%)
0%
1 star 8%
Audible reivew
Memories lost
When I first found this audible book, it was several months from being released. Waiting for this publication was well worth the effort. The author, Charles J. Handley is a Pulitzer Prize & Polk Award winner who understands the individuals represented here so very well and his research is detailed, accurate and to the point. The narrator, Dan Woren, is especially talented in presenting the feelings of all shared in this book.
Be prepared as it can easily bring tears to your eyes. I will never forget this story, it has set memories of a time past that should never be forgotten. I highly recommend this audible presentation for every rating is in my opinion 5 stars all the way.
I hope, that like me, you too will look for eternal peace for the young souls of Koo-hee a two year old little girl and her 4 year old brother Koo-pil who lost their young lives during the Nogun-ri massacre in July of 1950.
May their memories and that of their mother Park Sun-young incredible courage, and her husband, Eun-young live on in this story. After 3 years of fighting, Korea from 1950 through 1953 still remains under a truce in 2020, This war was not approved by Congress, it was a war that America entered into under the direct order of President Truman, and where in the Truman year extended all military commitments for additional time. May the memories of all soldiers never be memories lost.
Top reviews from other countries
Kristopher Churchill
4.0 out of 5 stars EngagingReviewed in Canada on 21 January 2021
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A brilliant approach to understanding the many perspectives involved.
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James Ford
5.0 out of 5 stars Ghost Flames: Life and Death in a Hidden War, Korea 1950-1953Reviewed in the United States on 14 November 2020
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Charles Hanley is such a good writer that he makes even a disturbing history of the Korean War interesting and very readable. He brings out the horror behind the war statistics through the lives and memories of 20 people who lived through it. They are North Koreans, South Koreans, Chinese and Americans, soldiers, peasants. As Ghost Flames chronologically moves through the horrible events of the war, I became more and more interested in the stories and memories of these people. Ghost Flames is both a remarkably well researched and documented history and a very personal view of the meaningless horrors of war.
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Leo Hanifin
5.0 out of 5 stars Ghost Flames . . . a moving and faithful depiction of warReviewed in the United States on 28 January 2021
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In Ghost Flames, Charles Hanley’s extensive research, exceptional story-telling, energy and compassion combine to create an extraordinary contribution to humanity. Ghost Flames follows twenty real people, Americans, Koreans and Chinese, who provide, though their words and action, a mosaic of perspectives revealing the complexities and horrors of war . . . in particular this “forgotten war” in Korea.
I could not put it down . . . every page provides yet another insight into the ways in which the war affects people and visa-versa. For three long, painful years of the Korean War, armies wrought devastation at every scale, from separating families, or destroying villages and cities, and threatening cultures and even world-wide nuclear holocaust . . . and, in Ghost Flames, the reader is afforded a first-hand look through the eyes and words from soldiers and peasants to generals and world leaders.
Throughout Ghost Flames, the stories brought to tears, sometimes tears of joy, but mostly sadness. Unlike the war stories of my youth where I cheered for the Americans, in the end of Ghost Flames I cheered for humanity and peace.
Leo E. Hanifin
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D. Arnold
5.0 out of 5 stars A forgotten conflict.Reviewed in the United States on 5 October 2020
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Between all that has been written about WW II and Vietnam not much thought has been given to the Korean War. This book does a great job of humanizing this war and focuses on the horrors of this 3 year conflict. Very well written, it almost reads like a novel.
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charlie's dad
3.0 out of 5 stars Written mostly from the North Korean perspective
Reviewed in the United States on 1 March 2021
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This book is well written and engrossing but is very one sided. It really doesn’t mention the authoritarian North Korean leadership except it was inept. This book except for two or three exceptions is written from the North Korean perspective. War is hell and the depictions of families torn apart and lives lost is the best part of the book. I agree with the uselessness of the Korean War and how Cold War politics made it politics. It is a lesson unlearned in Vietnam and where ever outside force intervene in an internal civil war.
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This book is well written and engrossing but is very one sided. It really doesn’t mention the authoritarian North Korean leadership except it was inept. This book except for two or three exceptions is written from the North Korean perspective. War is hell and the depictions of families torn apart and lives lost is the best part of the book. I agree with the uselessness of the Korean War and how Cold War politics made it politics. It is a lesson unlearned in Vietnam and where ever outside force intervene in an internal civil war.
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