Best book in foreign affairs
“The first casualty when war comes is truth,” said Sen. Hiram Johnson in 1917. London Sunday Times special correspondent Phillip Knightley has expanded this thesis in a book, “The First Casualty, ” in which he evaluates the role of war correspondents during the past 120 years. In the book, published by Harcourt Brace Javanovich, Inc., Knightley suggests that we read during wartime often bears little resemblance to reality. During the Spanish Civil War, for example, reporters like Kim Philby, George Orwell, and Ernest Hemingway were ardent partisans. Hemingway even tried to suppress unfavorable facts about the Republicans. A native of Australia, Knightley has spent time in the Pacific Islands and in India.